Volume 69, number 3,4 OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 1 January 1989

THE DIGITAL OPTICAL SWITCH: ANALOGOUS DIRECTIONAL COUPLER DEVICES

R.R.A. SYMS ’
Optics Section, Department ofPhysics, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW?, UK

and

R.G. PEALL
Department of Engineering Science, Parks Road, Oxford, UK

Received 4 July 1988

The “digital optical switch” of Silverberg et al. is discussed. It is shown that previously-investigated directional coupler struc-
tures may exhibit similar characteristics, namely (i ) asymptotic, rather than oscillatory, coupling characteristics, (ii) sidelobeless
switch response, (iii) insensitivity to fabrication tolerances and (iv) insensitivity to operational parameters, e.g. polarization and
wavelength. The device discussed may in addition have further advantages over that of Silverberg et al. The analysis is performed
using strong coupled mode theory.

1. Introduction microwaves, and subsequently reapplied to inte-

The “digital optical switch” (DOS) of Silberberg
et al. [ 1,2] has rightly received attention as a tol-
erance-insensitive integrated optical switch. It has a
step-like switch response, which eliminates precise
voltage control and which is insensitive to polari-
zation and wavelength.
The purpose of this letter is twofold. Firstly, we
wish to point out that the apparently radical nature
of the design may be misleading; similar non-inter-
ferometric devices have been investigated in the past,
and we wish to show the analogy with these devices.
The designs have been based on directional couplers,
with the aim of relaxing tolerances. Secondly, we
suggest that these devices may have some advan-
tages over the DOS.
2. The tapered velocity coupler
The tapered velocity coupler was originally inves-
tigated by Cooke [ 31, Fox [ 41 and Louise11 [ 51 in
’ BICC/Fellowship of Engineering Senior Research Fellow.
grated optics by Wilson and Teh [ 6,7]. It is a cou-
pler with non-identical guides (fig. la), whose
parameters (e.g. guide width) change with distance
for a linear variation of velocity mismatch (fig. 1b).
To analyse such devices, coupled mode theory can
be used. In the older form (e.g. [ 8 ] ), which we shall
use for this initial discussion, the relevant approxi-
mate equations defining the changes in mode am-
plitudes in two general slowly-varying guides with
distance can be written as
dA,(z)/dz=-iA/+(z)A,(z)-irc(z)&(z),
d&(z)/dz= -iAfi*(z) A,(z)-ire(z) A,(z) . (1)
Here A, and Az are the amplitudes of the two modes,
A/3, and AD2are the differences in propagation con-
stant from a reference PO,and K is the coupling coef-
ficient; all parameters are slowly-varying.
Power is transferred from one guide to another
through the coupling coefficient K,which is held con-
stant in the tapered velocity coupler. Because of the
mismatch, this is only effective near the device centre.
It has been shown, using numerical and analytic [ 9 ]
methods, that 100% transfer is possible. The process

0 030-4018/89/$03.50 0 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. 235

(North-Holland Physics Publishing Division)
Volume 69, number 3,4 OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 1 January 1989

GUIDE 2
is asymptotic rather than oscillatory, so that changes
in rcdo not significantly alter the result. Equally, the (a)
device is insensitive to process errors; changes width -
GUIDE1
of both guides do not affect the outcome, while a
change in width of one guide merely moves the point
of synchronisms. Similarly, the addition of elec-
trodes, which can push the index of one guide up and
the other down, can also move the point of syn- (b)

chronism (fig. 1b). At the time, the device proved

mainly a curiosity, because it does not function as a 2.0
switch and because of its length. However, it oper-
ates on similar principles to the DOS, in that its be-
haviour can be explained in terms of the slow
Cc)
evolution of a single characteristic mode with dis-
tance [lo].

3. Tapered velocity and tapered coupling

Two similar devices were then investigated: cou-

plers with uniform velocity, but tapered coupling
[ 111, and a coupler which in addition to a quasi-lin-
ear variation in mismatch had a slow variation in
coupling, which tended to zero at either end and
peaked in the middle [ 121. In the former paper,
(d)

(e)
nLA.-z zro

switch applications were investigated, but in the lat-
ter the requirement was an analytic solution for a
rather special case.
Such devices can be used as switches as follows.
Fig. lc shows a coupler with the linear variation in
mismatch of fig. la, and also a parabolic variation
in separation. This would give a variation of cou-
pling as in fig. Id, approximately gaussian. Using
electrodes, the point of synchronism may be moved
away from the centre as before. Now there is one cru-
cial difference: the point may be moved from a re-
gion of high coupling into one of low (tending to zero
with arbitrarily large voltage) coupling. If this oc-
curs, power will no longer be transferred, and the
switch response will be similar to that of the DOS.
The major difference is that arbitrarily large nega-
tive voltage was required for one switch state of the
DOS, and arbitrarily large positive voltage for the
other; the zero voltage condition corresponded to a
50 : 50 split. Here, the two required voltages are zero
and arbitrarily large positive or negative voltage. We
feel this is advantageous, in that a single-polarity
switch voltage only is required, and the failure mode
“a-“b
Fig. 1. (a) Tapered velocity coupler. (b) Variation of propaga-
tion constants with distance in switched and unswitched states.
(c) Coupler with tapered velocity and coupling. (d) Typical
variation of coupling strength with distance. (e) Alternative
method of obtaining tapered effective index.
(zero volts) can correspond to a bypass.
We have verified by the above remarks by direct
integration of eqs. ( 1) . The assumed variations of K,
Ag, and A& were of the form
K=icOexp(-az’), A&=&A/?z*A/L,. (2)
For a sufficiently large value of A/?‘, and suitable
combinations of r~, and (Y,sidelobeless switching is
demonstrated as ABswis varied.
4. Analysis
Recently, coupled mode theory has been revised
for increased accuracy by a number of authors (e.g.
[ 13,141)) including the effect of overlap terms. Con-

236
Volume 69, number 3,4 OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 1 January 1989

sequences of the theory are an improved definition
of power and non-identical coupling coefficients. We
have examined the implications for this device. Be-
cause it has slowly-varying parameters (not included
in [ 13,14]), we have used our own formulation,
which although scalar does allow such variation, and
which has recently been shown to give excellent re-
sults for Ti: LiNb03 3-arm couplers [ 151. The de-
vice is formed from an index distribution n=(x, y,
z), which corresponds to a superposition of two in-
dividual guides with indices n, (x, y, z) and n2(x, y,
z) . The modes in the two guides have fields E, (x, y,
z) and E2 (x, y, z) , and propagation constants b1(z)
and B2(z) respectively. In all cases, variations with
z are slow. The differential equations can be written
in matrix form as
dA/dz= (-iC-’ [ AflC+K] -C-‘N)A
A is a vector containing the two mode amplitudes,
while C, Ahg,K and lV are 2x2 matrices with ele-
ments written in inner product notation as
cu=(Ei,Ej), Ahso=(Bi-PO) su,
JGj=(~2~~o/2Bo) (Ei(G-nT), Ej) 9
nG= (Ei, dEj/dz) .
One disadvantage of the improved equations is that
they must be solved for actual guide structures. We
have used a slab guide model, assuming the two
guides have widths w1(z) = w,+ w’z and w2(z)
= w, - w’z, and are separated symmetrically by a gap
g(z)=g,+cyz2. The refractive indices of the two
guides are nl = n,+ An,, and n2= ng-AnSw, where
AnSwis assumed due to electrooptic switching, and
the substrate index is n,. Tapered velocity is thus ob-
tained by variation in guide width, tapered coupling
by variation in gap, and switching by perturbation to
the guide indices. The parameters used were w. = 7
urn, w’=2x 10e5, go=3.5 urn, a=O.O4125/m,
no=2.2017 and n,=2.2, to simulate a lithium niob-
ate device. The total length considered was 4 cm, and
the wavelength was 1.523 urn. Fig. 2 shows the vari-
ation in A/3,,2with distance when An, = 0, which does
indeed show an approximately linear variation in
(3) mismatch. (/IO is chosen so that A/&2= 0 at the de-
vice centre). Similarly, fig. 2 also shows the varia-
tion of c12, the overlap between the two fields. The
relatively large peak value justifies the use of strong
coupling theory in this case. Finally, fig. 2 shows the
variations of the two coupling coefficients K,~ and
x2,. These are not equal, as expected, but each has
an approximately gaussian shape.
(4)
We have integrated the equations numerically to
obtain the switch characteristic as An, is varied. Fig.

C x (m-1) Ap (m”)
1.0 - 800

0.8 -
600

0.6 -

0.4 -

0.2 -

0 L
-2 -1 0 1 2
DISTANCE 2 (cm)

Fig. 2. Variation of Ab,, Ab,, c12.q2 and q, with distance in device with tapered velocity and coupling; parameters as in text.

231
Volume 69, number 3,4
OUTPUT POWER
0.6 -
-6
Fig. 3. Typical switch characteristic
3 shows the result, which appears typical. 100%
transfer is obtained when An,=O, and sidelobeless
switching is demonstrated. Fig. 3 also shows the re-
sponse when n, has a different value (due for ex-
ample to process variations) of 2.2015, which shows
the insensitivity of the two switch states to such
changes.
5. Practical diffhlties
The major problem in fabricating the switch is the
quantization (of the order of 0.1 urn) of details at
the mask-making stage. In the example above, the
variation of interguide separation is quite large, and
could be approximated well. However, the guide
widths taper by only 0.8 pm, which would allow 8
steps at this resolution. We have examined the effect
of quantization, and find that it broadens the switch
characteristic and introduces a ragged response. One
solution would be to use a constant guide width, and
to obtain a velocity taper by varying the guide index
as shown in fig. 1e. For example, in a Ti : LiNb03 de-
vice an ion-beam mill could be used to selectively
reduce the Ti thickness. This would allow a substan-
tial increase in the number of steps in the taper.
238
OPTICS COMMUNICATIONS 1 January 1989
GUIDE 2
-3 0 3 6
INDEX CHANGE X104
for device with tapered velocity and coupling; parameters as in text.
Acknowledgements
R.R.A. Syms would like to acknowledge the sup-
port of BICC Plc and The Fellowship of Engineering;
R.G. Peal1 that of the Plessey Co.
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