Implementation of 1×N router based on Mach-Zehnder Interferometer electro-optic switch

Signal routers are novel photonic components that ensure communication between a large numbers of optical networks. In this paper we present the construction of 1×N router by using 2×2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer electro-optic switches operating at 1.55 μm. The 2×2 Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) electro-optic switches in the routers are made by titanium diffused potassium niobate (Ti:KNbO
₃
) and the results of the routers were compared with titanium diffused lithium niobate (Ti:LiNbO
₃
) based routers to ease the choice of materials in implementing large networks. Enhanced performance of a single switch was evaluated at first to obtain reduced insertion loss, high extinction ratio & low excess loss. Then we implemented the 1×2, 1×4, 1×8 and 1×16 routers using that optimized switches. We can switch the input optical power to each of the output ports of the routers by the application of applied voltage at each second electrode of the MZI switches. The originality of this work is to introduce Ti:KNbO
₃
waveguide in the design of signal router. The simulation is done and also outputs are calculated by using OptiBPM12.2 simulation software.