Electrowetting switch for multimode optical fibers

Construction and characterization of an optical switch, based on electrowetting and suitable for use with multimode fibers are described. With a 50-μm core, 0.23-N.A. input and output fibers, the measured fiber-to-fiber insertion loss at λ = 0.633 μm was 0.5 ± 0.1 dB for one channel and 2.0 ± 0.2 dB for the other, with cross talk of −22.8 ± 0.5 and <−51 dB, respectively. Response time is ≈20 msec with driving power of ≈25 μW and a voltage requirement of ≤1.0 V. The switch has been tested for over 107 cycles with no observable degradation.