A tunable liquid crystal switch (10) is disclosed. An electronic controller (30) provides an electronic drive scheme for achieving low intra-channel crosstalk of less than -40dB using only electronic compensation. A cross-talk less than -50dB is provided by combining coarse temperature tuning and electronic compensation. This is achieved by designing the thickness (d) of the liquid crystal device (20) 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 (20) is tunable over all operating wavelengths and temperatures using electronic compensation.