Silicon photonic switch with spot size converters for low-loss, polarization-insensitive optical coupling to fibers

As a promising device platform technology for optical switches, silicon photonics is recently attracting much attention. In this paper, we demonstrate compact 8×8 silicon photonic switch modules with low loss, low polarization sensitivity, and low cross-talk properties. These optical switch modules are intended for applying to ROADMs in telecom optical networks, but port count extensibility using multiple compact modules and faster switching based on thermo-optical effect of silicon are useful also for datacenter applications.