Anel GARZA-RIVERA, Francisco-Javier RENERO-CARRILLO^*, and Carlos-G TREVINO-PALACIOS

Instituto Nacional de Astrofísica, Óptica y Electrónica, Luis Enrique Erro #1, Santa María Tonantzintla, 72840 Puebla, México

(Received May 16, 2013; Accepted June 2, 2014)

We propose a novel design of micro-optical devices based on multi-aperture compound insect eyes, which transfer a point-to-point multichannel free space signal combined with a diffraction grating. The system is inspired in the refractive superposition compound eyes configuration known as Gabor superlens (GSL) using microlens arrays. A switching function and wave division multiplexing are achieved by introducing a diffraction grating placed in the global focus of the system. The source characteristics, either coherent or incoherent, influence the device performance.

Key words: free-space optical interconnects, multiplexer, demultiplexer, compound eyes, multi-aperture optics, wave division multiplexing, Gabor superlens

^*E-mail address: paco@inaoep.mx