The Design of a Fiber-Coupling Micro-Lens Array for an M × N Wavelength-Selective Switch

Abstract

The M × N port wavelength-selective switch (WSS) is a crucial device used for Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multiplexors and optical switching nodes in optical communication systems. The primary function of an M × N port WSS is to simultaneously transmit and switch multiple input optical signals from input fiber ports to output fiber ports through spatial light coupling. The port array module in a WSS that is responsible for coupling the spatial beam with the fiber determines the important parameters of the M × N port WSS, such as the number of input/output ports and insertion loss. In this paper, VirtualLab Fusion software 2023.1 (Build 1.558), as a powerful physical optics simulation tool, is used to design and optimize a silicon micro-lens array that can achieve the high-precision coupling of a fiber array with a pitch of 1143 μm. Finally, the designed micro-lens is manufactured and experimentally demonstrates its good beam focusing ability with a 3 dB insertion loss. The designed micro-lens array coupling system, which delivers 28 focused spots of approximately 1mm in size (the beam has a 1/e2 diameter) after transmitting a distance of around 300 mm, effectively extends the number of WSS ports. This design method of the micro-lens array significantly amplifies the port count of the M × N port wavelength-selective switch, effectively expanding it to encompass an impressive 28 × 28 ports.