Compact wavelength-selective cross-connect device having multiple input ports and multiple output ports

摘要

A wavelength-selective cross-connect (WSXC) device having N input ports and M output ports and configured to route any set of one or more carrier wavelengths from a corresponding input port to any selected output port. In one embodiment, the WSXC device includes a diffraction grating and a beam-steering device optically coupled to each other and to the input/output ports so that each of the carrier wavelengths traverses the diffraction grating and the beam-steering device two or more times en route from the respective input port to a designated output port. Various unfolded configurations of the WSXC device are also disclosed.

主权项

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a first plurality of ports; a second plurality of ports; a first diffraction grating interposed between the first plurality of ports and the second plurality of ports; and a first beam-steering device interposed between the first plurality of ports and the second plurality of ports, wherein:
each port of the first plurality is configured to receive a respective input WDM signal having two or more respective WDM components;the apparatus is configured to variously route the WDM components from the first plurality of ports to the second plurality of ports so that each of the WDM components traverses the first diffraction grating and the first beam-steering device;the first diffraction grating is configured to spectrally disperse light received from the first plurality of ports and direct spectrally dispersed light to the first beam-steering device;the first beam-steering device is configurable to individually steer beams corresponding to different wavelength bands of the spectrally dispersed light received from the first diffraction grating to enable the apparatus to route any of the WDM components from the respective port of the first plurality to any port of the second plurality; andthe apparatus has a folded structure that causes a WDM component to traverse the first diffraction grating four times.