Patent ID: 7187497

Claim:
An optical switching/routing system comprising: a polarization separating sub-system; said polarization separating sub-system being capable of separating an input optical beam into a first optical beam of a first polarization and a second optical beam of a second polarization, said second polarization being distinct from said first polarization, and emitting a first emitted optical beam of a third polarization and a second emitted optical beam of said third polarization, said emitted first and emitted second optical beams constituting an input channel of said third polarization; a polarization recombining sub-system; and, a grating based selectable switching/routing sub-system including at least one pixilated switchable component, said selectable switching and routing sub-system being interposed optically between said polarization separating sub-system and said polarization recombining sub-system; and; said selectable switching/routing sub-system being capable of switching/routing said input channel to an output channel of a fourth polarization, said output channel constituting a pair of output beams of said fourth polarization; said polarization recombining subsystem being capable of recombining said pair of output beams of said fourth polarization into a final output beam of combined polarization; wherein said polarization separating sub-system comprises a polarization splitter and a patterned polarization converter; and wherein said polarization splitter comprises a pair of polarization splitting gratings.