A Scalable MEMS-based “Selector Switch” for High Performance Computing Networks

Technology Description

Optical circuit switching may be instrumental in meeting the cost, energy, and aggregate bandwidth requirements of future data center networks. However, conventional MEMS beam-steering cross-connects cannot provide sub-millisecond switching with the port count necessary for data centers. Given here is a novel non-crossbar selector switch architecture and pupil-division switching layout to improve optical switching performance by relaxing the requirement of arbitrary switch configurability. This architecture and switch design enable MEMS beam-steering micromirrors to scale to microsecond response speeds while supporting high port count and low loss switching, and can realize a number of useful interconnection topologies.

Applications

This work will find ready application in data-center networks.

State Of Development

Developed to date are a design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of a proof-of-principle prototype using a single comb-driven MEMS mirror to achieve 150 μs switching of 61 ports between 4 pre-programmed interconnection mappings. The further scalability of this switch design is demonstrated with a detailed optical design of a 2,048-port selector switch with 20 μs switching time.

Intellectual Property Info

This work is patent pending and commercial development partners are welcome to inquire.  (invent@ucsd.edu)

Patent Status

Additional Patent Pending