Design of a 1×K wavelength selective switch based on TEC fiber array in curved alignment

This paper reports a wavelength selective switch (WSS) employing a thermally expanded core (TEC) fiber array (FA) as the input/outputs, which enables a compact WSS with convenience for alignment and assembly. Simulation of the WSS module based on ZEMAX shows that conical diffraction of the grating results in horizontal offset of the output beam spots. An excess insertion loss will be caused due to the offset if a linearly aligned FA is employed as the input/outputs. This paper designs a parabolically aligned TEC FA that the fibers in the array can be positioned by V-grooves with different depth. With the parabolically aligned TEC FA as the input/outputs, the WSS module is expected to be compact with low loss.