A tunable liquid crystal switch is disclosed. An electronic controller
provides an electronic drive scheme for achieving low intra-channel
crosstalk of less than -40 dB using only electronic compensation. A
cross-talk less than -50 dB is provided by combining coarse temperature
turning and electronic compensation. This is acheived by designing the
thickness of the liquid crystal device to cause a minimum to occur at a
wavelength longer than a longest operating wavelength and at a temperature
greater than a maximum operating temperature. This ensures that the liquid
crystal device is tunable over all operating wavelengths and temperatures
using electronic compensation.
