A 2×2 electro-optical switch in thin-film lithium niobate foundry process

High-speed, small footprint photonic switches are crucial for data centers, telecommunications, and 5G due to handle increasing data traffic through a large number of input and output nodes. Photonic Integrated Circuit (PIC) technology, thanks to its miniaturization and performance efficiency, promises a scalable solution for the next generation of optical switches and interconnects. Among various PIC materials, Thin Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) retains superior performance in terms of light modulation speed and power consumption. This places TFLN PICs as a versatile platform to deliver efficient solutions for the interconnects. Despite this, TFLN fabrication is less mature than silicon photonics, and foundry processes are necessary to get mature to guarantee a reliable performance and access to the manufacturing facility. Showcasing capabilities of our foundry process, we present a 2×2 Mach-Zehnder interferometer TFLN switch, operating at 1550 nm, with an average 10-90% rise time of 0.29 μs and an average 90-10% fall time of 0.28 μs.