400 Mb/s operation of a reconfigurable and cascadable PIN/HBT/VCSEL optoelectronic switching fabric with optical gain

A new multifunctional PIN/HBT/VCSEL switching fabric with high speed, optical gain (7.5 dB), and fan-out capability has been developed. This work demonstrates their switching and optical routing functions at >400 Mb/s. This fabric can perform the functions of an optical transceiver as well as an optical switch by converting data interchangeably between either the electrical or optical format. The new switching fabric results in improved performance over previous implementations by separating the photodetection and amplification functions into two devices that can be independently optimized, i.e., a PIN diode and an HBT.