A single-mode 110,000 optical scanning switch was fabricated by cascading a 110 single-fiber switch and a 11,000 ten-fiber-ribbon switch. The average insertion loss was 1.5 dB, and the loss variation throughout 1,000 switching cycles was less than 0.2 dB. The maximum switching time was 3.5 sec.

Design theory of coupled-waveguide optical modulator/switch with pn junction is presented for a new structure with two parallel strip-loaded channel waveguides, and numerical analyses on GaAs and GaAs-AlxGa1-xAs devices at 1.06µm are carried out. It is analyzed that P/f (modulating power per bandwidth) is much smaller in this device than in its predecessor with multi-layered structure in planar waveguide configuration, and that promising devices with P/f for 100% modulation as low as 22 µW/MHz can be designed within the limits of present fabrication technology.