Off-Chip Polarization-Diversity $4 \,\, \times \,\, 4$ Si-Wire Optical Switch With Digital DGD Compensation

A 4 × 4 Si-wire path-independent insertion-loss optical switch having off-chip polarization diversity is demonstrated. The polarization diversity is achieved using off-chip components of polarization-maintaining fiber arrays and fiber-based polarization splitters and combiners. A path-independent on-chip loss of 4.8 ± 0.5 dB is obtained with a polarization-dependent loss below 1 dB. Crosstalk of t...