Multimode switch (MMS) allows realizing multimode optical communication with high-speed communication. However, to develop such an ultrafast switch for simultaneous multimode with a compact size is very challenging. This paper designs and demonstrates a compact multimode 2×2 MMS based on numerical simulation methods using silicon Ψ-junctions and multimode interference (MMI) couplers. The switch is controlled by thermal-optic phase shifters, which permits to switch simultaneous states of the optical signal between three quasi-transverse electric modes. The MMS exhibits a low insertion loss and low crosstalk below -3 dB and -22 dB in 40-nm bandwidth in the third telecom window from 1520 to 1560 nm. With a compact footprint of 12 µm × 1300 µm, the MMS exhibits relatively large dimensional tolerances. Besides, the MMS provides low electric power consumption levels, which is smaller than 40 mW at an ultrafast switching time of 4.4 µs without the impact of the plasmonic effect. Furthermore, the proposed MMS can be reconfigurable and scalable in multidimensional and multifunctional on-chip mode-division multiplexing optical interconnects. Therefore, the proposed MMS is promising potential for large-scale integrated photonic circuits in the continuum band.
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