Reconfigurable Free-Space Optical Interconnects
Abstract
Free-space optical interconnects can support many low-data-rate channels while avoiding the cost, energy consumption, and packaging constraints of optical waveguide- or fiber-based systems that are widely used today. We propose a free-space optical interconnect system based on reconfigurable micromirror arrays, and show that it scales favorably due to its two-dimensional scaling. We discuss the channel count scaling model, compare our demonstration with theory, and project a channel count above 10,000 to achieve 100 Tbps with slow channels (e.g., <10 Gbps). In a proof-of-concept system with a piston-motion micromirror array, we demonstrate nine channels that are simultaneously optimized. The optimization enables -21.7 dB of average worst-case crosstalk for a channel pitch equal to twice the beam radius, a smaller channel spacing than that required in flat tip-tilt mirrors. The optimization flow is further investigated for different channel spacings, simultaneous illumination, and different numbers of outputs, which generally achieve smaller worst-case crosstalk than the flat tip-tilt mirror case. Overall, the work demonstrates the advantage of piston-motion micromirrors in the proposed optical interconnects.
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BibTeX
@misc{lee2026reconfigurable,
title = {{Reconfigurable Free-Space Optical Interconnects}},
author = {Jaekwon Lee and Carson G. Valdez and Anne R. Kroo and David A. B. Miller and Olav Solgaard},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.30757},
eprint = {2610.30757},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30757},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Reconfigurable Free-Space Optical Interconnects
AU - Jaekwon Lee
AU - Carson G. Valdez
AU - Anne R. Kroo
AU - David A. B. Miller
AU - Olav Solgaard
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.30757
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30757
AB - Free-space optical interconnects can support many low-data-rate channels while avoiding the cost, energy consumption, and packaging constraints of optical waveguide- or fiber-based systems that are widely used today. We propose a free-space optical interconnect system based on reconfigurable micromirror arrays, and show that it scales favorably due to its two-dimensional scaling. We discuss the channel count scaling model, compare our demonstration with theory, and project a channel count above 10,000 to achieve 100 Tbps with slow channels (e.g., <10 Gbps). In a proof-of-concept system with a piston-motion micromirror array, we demonstrate nine channels that are simultaneously optimized. The optimization enables -21.7 dB of average worst-case crosstalk for a channel pitch equal to twice the beam radius, a smaller channel spacing than that required in flat tip-tilt mirrors. The optimization flow is further investigated for different channel spacings, simultaneous illumination, and different numbers of outputs, which generally achieve smaller worst-case crosstalk than the flat tip-tilt mirror case. Overall, the work demonstrates the advantage of piston-motion micromirrors in the proposed optical interconnects.
ER -