The present invention relates to optical communications.
The present invention relates in particular to an optical selector enabling an optical path to be selected for an optical signal carrying data to be conveyed, the optical path being selected from a plurality of predefined optical paths, each of which might be taken by the signal. To limit the cost of such a selector, it is desirable to make it up as a cascaded chain of switches implemented in integrated form, i.e. on a common substrate. When a plurality of signals are supplied simultaneously at a plurality of terminals of a selector implemented in this way, crosstalk can appear. Such crosstalk occurs, for example, because if one of the signals to be conveyed is received on the end terminal that is specific to the selected optical path while other signals are received by the selector on the end terminals of other optical paths, then the conveyed signal is polluted by the other signals.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,791 (Koai) proposes to reduce the crosstalk of a switch by integrating couplers therein, the couplers being controlled by the same electrodes as the switch. Implementing a selector by using a large number of such switches would be costly.