Photonic band gap router

1. An arrangement comprising:

a photonic band-gap assembly comprising an array of lattice points forming at least one input wave guide and at least one output wave guide; and

the photonic band-gap assembly including at least one mechanically movable element operably connected to at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points, the at least one mechanically movable element being responsive to signals to displace the at least one lattice point to affect a geometry of at least one of the at least one input wave guide and at least one output wave guide and to selectively route a signal from the input wave guide to one or more of the output wave guides.

2. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the at least one input wave guide is an optical wave guide.

3. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the photonic bandgap assembly includes at least one photonic bandgap configured to prohibit propagation of photons along at least one direction.

4. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the at least one output waveguide includes:

one or more waveguides shaped to produce a substantially ninety degree turn in the direction of a signal.

5. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the photonic band-gap assembly further comprises:

a periodic dielectric structure.

6. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the photonic band-gap assembly further comprises:

an atomic-molecular structure comprising at least one of a square lattice structure, a triangular lattice structure, a hexagonal lattice structure, a Kagome structure, a graphite structure, a woodpile structure, an opal structure, an inverse opal structure, or a Bragg stack.

7. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the photonic band-gap assembly further comprises:

a metallic-dielectric crystal.

8. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the photonic band-gap assembly further comprises:

a semiconductor material.

9. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the photonic band-gap assembly further comprises:

a ceramic material.

10. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the input wave guide and output wave guides comprise:

regions comprising material having a substantially different dielectric property than surrounding material.

11. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the input wave guide and a plurality of output waveguides further comprise:

surface regions of the photonic band-gap assembly.

12. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the input wave guide and a plurality of output wave guides further comprise:

interior regions of the photonic band gap assembly.

13. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the mechanically movable element includes:

a micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) element.

14. The arrangement of claim 13 , wherein the micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) element further comprises:

an electrically actuated MEMS circuit having at least one submicron dimension.

15. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the output wave guides further comprise:

one or more wave guides adapted to produce a substantially one hundred eighty degree turn in the direction of a signal.

16. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the output wave guides further comprise:

one or more wave guides adapted to produce a substantially two hundred seventy degree turn in the direction of a signal.

17. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the photonic band-gap assembly further comprises:

at least one of silicon, germanium, gallium arsenide, or indium phosphide.

18. The arrangement of claim 1 , further comprising:

logic to influence the at least one mechanically movable element to selectively and periodically route signals from different input wave guides to a same output wave guide during different time intervals.

19. The arrangement of claim 1 , further comprising:

logic to influence the at least one mechanically movable element to selectively and concurrently route a plurality of input signals on different input wave guides to a same output wave guide.

20. The arrangement of claim 1 , wherein the at least one output wave guide is an optical wave guide.

21. A method comprising:

directing a signal from an input wave guide to an output wave guide, wherein the input wave guide and output wave guide are defined by an array of lattice points in a photonic band gap assembly, by displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points, wherein displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points affects a geometry of at least one of the input wave guide and the output wave guide.

22. The method of claim 21 wherein displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points includes causing at least a ninety degree turn in a direction of propagation of the input signal.

23. The method of claim 21 , wherein displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points includes causing a substantially one hundred eighty degree turn in a direction of propagation of the input signal.

24. The method of claim 21 , wherein displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points includes causing a substantially two hundred seventy degree turn in a direction of propagation of the input signal.

25. A photonic routing system, comprising:

a photonic band gap assembly including an array of lattice points, the array of lattice points forming at least one input port and a plurality of output ports; and

the photonic band gap assembly including a mechanically movable element integral to the photonic band gap assembly and responsive to control signals to switch between at least two configurations, a first of the configurations having a first lattice distribution and being operative to direct photon signals received at the at least one input port to a first of the output ports and a second of the configurations having a second lattice distribution different from the first lattice distribution and being operative to direct photon signals received at the at least one input port to a second of the output ports.

26. The photonic routing system of claim 25 wherein the mechanically movable element is a MEMS element.

27. The photonic routing system of claim 25 wherein the mechanically movable element in the first configuration directs photon signals along a first path and in the second configuration directs photon signals along a second path different from the first path.

28. The photonic routing system of claim 25 further including control circuitry responsive to commands to provide the control signals to the mechanically movable element.

29. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the at least one mechanically movable element is responsive to signals to affect a geometry of at least one of the at least one input wave guide and at least one output wave guide by changing a dimension of at least one of the at least one input wave guide and at least one output wave guide.

30. The arrangement of claim 1 wherein the at least one mechanically movable element is responsive to signals to affect a geometry of at least one of the at least one input wave guide and at least one output wave guide by displacing the at least one lattice point relative to other lattice points in the array of lattice points.

31. The method of claim 21 wherein displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points affects a geometry of at least one of the input wave guide and the output wave guide by changing a dimension of at least one of the input wave guide and the output wave guide.

32. The method of claim 21 wherein displacing at least one lattice point in the array of lattice points affects a geometry of at least one of the input wave guide and the output wave guide by displacing the at least one lattice point relative to other lattice points in the array of lattice points.

33. The photonic routing system of claim 25 wherein the array of lattice points forms at least one input guide and a plurality of output guides, wherein the at least one input guide includes the at least one input port and wherein the plurality of output guides include the plurality of output ports.

34. The photonic routing system of claim 25 wherein the first lattice distribution has a first band-gap distribution and wherein the second lattice distribution has a second band-gap distribution different from the first band-gap distribution.