DETECTOR REMODULATOR AND OPTOELECTRONIC SWITCH

摘要

A detector remodulator (DRM) comprising a silicon on insulator (SOI) waveguide platform including: a detector coupled to a first input waveguide; a modulator coupled to a second input waveguide and an output waveguide; and an electrical circuit connecting the detector to the modulator; wherein the detector, modulator, second input waveguide and output waveguide are arranged within the same horizontal plane as one another; and wherein the modulator includes a modulation waveguide region at which a semiconductor junction is set horizontally across the waveguide; and an optoelectronic packet switch comprising: one or more switch input(s) for receiving optical packet signals; a passive optical router having input ports and output ports, the optical paths between which are wavelength dependent; a switch control unit; and a plurality of detector remodulators (DRMs) configured to receive optical signals from the one or more switch input(s) and to generate modulated optical signals for transmission to the input ports of the passive optical router, each DRM comprising: one or more detectors for converting an optical packet signal received at the one or more switch input(s) into an electrical packet signal; one or more modulators for generating the modulated optical signals, each modulator configured to: receive a wavelength tuned laser input from a tunable laser; receive the electrical packet signal from one of the detectors; and to generate a modulated optical signal at the tuned wavelength, the modulated optical signal containing the information of the electric packet signal and the tuned wavelength chosen to select a desired output port of the passive optical router for the modulated optical signal; and an electronic circuit connecting each of the one or more detectors to a corresponding modulator; wherein each of the one or more modulators is a separate component from the tunable laser that provides its wavelength tuned laser input; and wherein the switch control unit includes a scheduler which is communicably connected to the electronic circuit of each DRM; the electronic circuit configured to control the generation of the modulated optical signal by the modulator based on scheduling information received from the switch control unit.