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We report on 50 × 50 silicon photonic micro-electromechanical-system (MEMS) switches with reduced polarization dependence. The switches make use of two-level waveguide crossbars and MEMS-actuated adiabatic couplers. Simulations indicate that by eliminating all polarization-dependent elements (e.g., waveguide crossings), low polarization-dependent losses (

In this letter, we demonstrate a scalable addressing scheme for silicon photonic MEMS switches. For a crossbar architecture switch fabric of dimension $N \times N$ , the row/column addressing scales with $2\cdot N$ electrodes, much reduced from the $N^{2}$ electrodes in individual addressing. It also compares favorably with other optical switch architectures, including path-independent insertion loss, Benes, or switch-and-select networks, in terms of electrical interface. We have designed, fabricated, and experimentally characterized the performance of a $4 \times 4$ silicon photonic MEMS switch.

Optical circuit switches with fast switching times can provide rapidly reconfigurable bandwidth in data center networks. Silicon photonic switches are attractive candidates with their fast response times and CMOS process compatibility. In this paper, we report on a 50 x 50 silicon photonic switch with MEMS-actuated vertical adiabatic couplers. The switch is monolithically integrated on a 7.6 x 7.6 mm(2) chip. It has an on-chip insertion loss of 8.5 dB. Our switch exhibits a sub-microsecond switching time (0.85 mu s), a broad spectral bandwidth (1400-1700 nm), and digital switching characteristic. The switch architecture is highly scalable as light passes through only one switching element irrespective of the switch size.