Compact all–optical bypass–exchange switch

An electronically or optically addressed compact optical bypass–exchange switch is investigated and experimentally demonstrated. The switch is polarization based and consists of a controllable λ/2 plate sandwiched between two polarizing beam displacers. The input and the output signals propagate normal to the switching array, which makes the switch extremely attractive for cascading switching arrays, as found in multistage interconnect networks. A complete, all-optical interconnection network is suggested.