Low interchannel crosstalk high speed fiber optic N/spl times/N crossconnect switch using polarization optics and ferroelectric liquid crystals

It is highly desirable to have a low loss, high speed, low interchannel crosstalk, and light-weight fiber optic N/spl times/N cross-connect switch without any physical moving parts. It is well known that ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) can be used as high-speed polarization switching devices without any moving parts. In a previous letter we have reported a 2/spl times/2 fiber optic FLC switch with low interchannel crosstalk and high speed. Hence, in this paper, we propose the use of polarization optics combined with ferroelectric liquid crystals to build a N/spl times/N switch for optical cross-connects.