In the last few decades, increasing research effort has focused on the design of telecommunication payload systems with advanced features and lower costs in space applications. In this context, photonic solutions have already proven the potential to achieve additional functionalities, such as multiplexing or switching of RF or microwave signals, with consequent additional benefits in terms of size and mass reduction. In this paper, we report on the design of a 2 2 switching cell based on a thermo-optic interferometric configuration, whose key element is a sub-wavelength grating. We have theoretically demonstrated a broadband operation, with better performance in terms of operating wavelength range and compactness with respect to the existing interferometric cells. The switching cell shows a worst extinction ratio of about 13 dB, insertion loss of less than 2 dB, crosstalk of 12 dB, over a bandwidth of 150 nm, within a footprint as small as 240 m 9 m. To demonstrate its potential use as a routing fabric in flexible telecommunication satellite payloads, as an example, the designed switching cell has been used as a building block of an 8 8 dilated Banyan matrix, where large bandwidth (150 nm), low crosstalk (−38 dB), small footprint (≈1620 m 576 m) and relatively low power consumption (276 mW) have been achieved.

在过去的几十年里，越来越多的研究工作集中在具有先进功能和低成本空间应用的电信有效载荷系统的设计上。在这种情况下，光子解决方案已经证明了实现额外功能的潜力，例如射频或微波信号的多路复用或切换，从而在尺寸和质量减少方面带来额外的好处。在本文中，我们报告了基于热光干涉配置的 2 2 开关单元的设计，其关键元件是亚波长光栅。我们在理论上证明了宽带操作，在操作波长范围和紧凑性方面相对于现有干涉测量单元具有更好的性能。开关单元的最差消光比约为 13 dB，米 9 米。为了证明其在灵活的电信卫星有效载荷中作为路由结构的潜在用途，例如，设计的交换单元已用作 8×8 扩张榕树矩阵的构建块，其中大带宽（150 nm）、低串扰（- 38 dB)，占用空间小 (≈1620米 576 m) 和相对较低的功耗 (276 mW)。