Silicon Photonics for Matrix Switching Applications: Ingredients and Recipes

We present an overview of the key aspects for the design of scalable silicon photonic switch matrices. We first discuss different possible configurations, and then we present the proposed architecture for a multiport transponder aggregator within the European project IRIS. We also analyze all the necessary photonic building blocks for this application; we will show design considerations as well as experimental demonstrations of many of them, discussing all the possible issues that must be considered for the system to work within specifications.