Kotura Develops Ultrafast Si Photonics Switch

Kotura Inc., a manufacturer of silicon photonics products, announced it has demonstrated an ultrafast, submilliwatt broadband 2 x 2 optical switch. With switching speeds of 6 ns and power consumption of only 0.6 mW, the 60-nm bandwidth means the device could more than cover the entire C-band range.

“We are putting all the building blocks in place for optical interconnects,” said Mehdi Asghari, CTO at Kotura. “We previously demonstrated high-speed, low-power modulators, high-speed detectors with record performance, and low-loss wavelength division multiplexers and demultiplexers. With our new 2 x 2 switch, we will be able to support more complex silicon photonic circuits and enable more flexible interconnecting architectures. The switching power of 0.6 mW achieved by this free-carrier current injection device represents, to our knowledge, a world record, and the speed of 6 ns is amongst the fastest ever reported.”

“Because the device is broadband, it is very generic,” said Jean-Louis Malinge, president and CEO of Kotura. “The ultralow power of the switch enables us to integrate large numbers of our 2 x 2 switch modules to create complex switch fabrics. This is a very exciting development.”

Kotura’s low-power, high-speed switch was developed as part of DARPA’s Ultra-performance Nano-photonic Intrachip Communications (UNIC) program in conjunction with Oracle Corp., under the leadership of Dr. Jagdeep Shah, DARPA program manager. The paper “Submilliwatt, ultrafast and broadband electro-optic silicon switches” by Po Dong et al was recently published in the prestigious OSA journal Optics Express.

For more information, visit: www.kotura.com