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We have designed a monolithic 8 x 8 optical crossbar switch that can provide a lossless link for a fiber optic databus or communication system. The device is based upon a semiconductor active (with gain) waveguide structure that can be used as a building block at a monolithic device or multi-device level to configure a high bandwidth space division switch matrix. Because of its inherent gain, such a switch can split up a signal, to multiple destinations, many times and still achieve 0 dB insertion loss. We have already used this basic structure to fabricate and demonstrate distributed gain matrix vector multiplier (DGMVM) 4 x 4 crossbar switches operating at 850 nm and 930 nm. The 8 x 8 crossbar design is based upon the InGaAsP/InP epitaxial technology and in our case operates at 1 .55 .Lm. The monolithic device is completely nonbiocking, bidirectional, and can be operated in either a point-to-point or broadcast mode. Multiple monolithic space division switches can be interconnected by passive polymer waveguide arrays to form a large switching fabric on a single substrate. Our simulations for signal-to-noise (SIN) performance show that a -5 dBmJ2.5 GHz input optical signal can be split over twenty times (220 > 106) without degrading below a 1015 bit error rate (BER) level. Based upon this figure of merit, one could configure a 1024 x 1024 non-regenerative switching matrix with better than 5 dB of noise margin. We have fabricated and characterized a first generation of devices and currently are involved in characterizing the second and designing the third. We will discuss our concepts for applying our device concepts to higher levels of network integration for military and commercial applications.

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