A completely packaged strictly nonblocking 8/spl times/8 optical matrix switch on InP/InGaAsP

We report the fabrication of a completely packaged (including electronic drivers) strictly nonblocking transparent optical 8/spl times/8 matrix switch for routing applications at wavelength 1.55 /spl mu/m. The matrix is realized in a hybrid way from eight identical submodules each containing a single InP/InGaAsP chip with two 1/spl times/8 switches in parallel. The average values for fiber-matrix-fiber insertion loss and cross talk suppression are 20 and 28 dB, respectively. The usable wavelength range is 1450-1600 nm. The results indicate that large InP/InGaAsP switching matrices may be realized.