Three-dimensionally laminated optical-circuit arrays switch

Recently, the optical fiber networks have been developed and widely used. And now, the fiber to the home (FTTH) networks are planned. It is said that the electrical devices have many problems with applying an exchanger system which realizes the FTTH network. In this paper, we describe some application areas of photonic switching which seem like the breakthrough technologies against these problems. In these areas, we selected the distribution switch as an actual application of the photonic switching. Then, we propose a 3D-laminated optical circuit arrays switch (3D-LOCAS) which has functions to be used in the distribution exchanger system. We also are studying the switch size of 3D-LOCAS, and some problems in a real implementation. We describe some hints to solve the problems as well.