Integrated Micromachines Inc. plans to launch a subsystem for all-optical switching — its first product — at the OFC Conference, and fellow startup Movaz Networks Inc. announced its all-optical switch Wednesday (March 13).

Both products switch light by reflecting it off micromirrors based on microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). And both use 3-D MEMS technology, in which the mirrors can swivel to any number of angles. Nearly all micromirror devices shipping today use 2-D MEMS, where mirrors flip between two positions.

Tomorrow's market

The 3-D approach requires fewer mirrors, but several players have found the market too remote. Optical Micro Machines Inc. postponed its 3-D MEMS development efforts last year, electing to concentrate instead on 2-D MEMS devices and their more immediate market. Earlier this month, Nortel Networks shelved plans for the OpteraConnect PX, a 1,152-port all-optical switch it picked up in its acquisition of Xros Inc. in 2000, a $3.2 billion deal that heralded a year of high visibility for all-optical switching.

"Everything that's been said about 3-D MEMS has been correct, in that it's a difficult technology and a 2003 technology rather than a 2002 technology," said Denny Miu, chief executive of Integrated Micromachines Inc. But Miu said IMMI has perfected its 3-D MEMS cross-connect and expects a customer's system to be announced in the fourth quarter. "Right now is not the time to shut down a 3-D MEMS program," Miu said.

At OFC next week, IMMI will introduce the IMX-80 optical MEMS subsystem based on an 80 x 80 3-D MEMS switching fabric. The IMX-80 is a near-complete system targeted at OEMs, who would need to add software to make the box a functioning switch.

A MEMS company that got its start selling pressure sensors, IMMI designed its own 3-D MEMS switch fabric and ASIC for sensor control. The MEMS fabric is built in IMMI's own fabrication facility, while the ASIC is built by a foundry. All other components in the IMMI subsystem are purchased off-the-shelf.

IMMI said it doesn't expect anyone to deploy a lone all-optical switch. Rather, the company expects its customers to put an IMX-80 alongside a traditional grooming switch, using the all-optical switch only for "express" wavelengths that don't need to stop at that particular node.

IMMI also has 40 x 40 and 256 x 256 subsystems in the works, Miu said.

Demo due

Separately, Movaz on Wednesday announced its Integrated Wavelength Selective Switch (iWSS), a 3-D MEMS system that scales to hundreds of ports in size. Movaz will demonstrate an alpha version of the box at OFC next week.

Neither IMMI nor Movaz appears to have immediate plans for 1,000-port switches such as Xros'. In fact, such large all-optical switches might never be necessary, said Conrad Burke, senior vice president of marketing at Optical Micro.

By grouping wavelengths in certain ways, it's possible to configure multiple 2-D MEMS devices to do work equivalent to a 1,000-port switch, Burke said. "Even as [all-optical switches] get bigger, there are quite elegant ways to use digital [2-D] MEMS to build those switches," he said.