Rearrangeable nonblocking polymer waveguide thermo-optic 4×4 switching matrix with low power consumption at 1.55 μm

A rearrangeable nonblocking polymer waveguide thermo-optic 4×4 directional-coupler-type switching matrix with low power consumption operating at 1.55 μm is demonstrated for the first time. The rearrangeable nonblocking 4×4 matrix consists of eight 2×2 switches. The power consumption of each switching element is 30 mW. A fibre-to-fibre insertion loss of less than 9 dB was measured and the polarisation sensitivity is less than 0.5 dB. The crosstalk was found to be between -17.5 and -32.5 dB for different switching configurations. The response time of the device is less than 1 ms