Performance and Yield of Pilot-Line Quantities of Lithium Niobate Switches:

We are supplying a minimum of 90 low-voltage, titanium indiffused lithium niobate switches to the University of Colorado Center for Optoelectronic Computing Systems (COCS), for use in a bit-serial optical computer. As required by the COCs, the single-polarization 2x2 switches, six to a package, have a single drive voltage of less than 5 volts, an insertion loss of less than 5 dB (including the loss of one connector), and crosstalk of less than -20 dB. At 10 dice per 3-inch wafer, 90 switches require only two wafers, making packaging and testing by far the most difficult and costly part of the production process.