Recent progress in optical switches based on planar lightwave circuit technology

Summary form only given. This paper reviewed recent advances in silica-based thermo optic switches (TOSWs) including NxN matrix switches (up to 16x16), 1xN switches (up to 1x128), an NxN switching sub-system (128x128), optical add drop multiplexing (OADM) integrated in TOSWs, and a low power consumption TOSW. Further advances in TOSW devices will contribute greatly to the construction of optical networks.