Optical Design of an LCoS-Based 1 × 10 WSS with High Coupling Efficiency and Compact Light Paths

Abstract

In the field of communication, the utilization of Liquid Crystal On Silicon (LCoS) in Wavelength Selective Switch (WSS) systems holds great promise. However, the lack of research on the optical path design of LCoS-based WSS makes it challenging to realize high-port-count and perfect performance with a compact structure. In this paper, the conceptual optical path design method of a compact LCoS-based 1 × 10 WSS system working in C-band (1529 nm–1568 nm) is proposed, where there exists 1 input port and 10 output ports in the same array. The optical powers in both the wavelength and deflection directions have been meticulously considered separately, while the polarization-independent structure has been designed novelty, which boost system compactness and lowers manufacturing costs. Finally, a high fiber-to-fiber coupling efficiency of an idealized system ranging from 95.07 to 99.18% with only five components is achieved. Furthermore, a brief tolerance analysis to demonstrate the instrumentation feasibility is also conducted and the additional losses that will be introduced by real experiments are discussed. Our work is pioneering in providing a more straightforward methodology and conceptual model for WSS system design and offering reference significant for high-port-count systems.

Keywords

• Wavelength Selection Switch
• phase-only Liquid Crystal on Silicon
• optical design
• high coupling efficiency