Optical waveguides – With optical coupler – Switch
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-24
2001-11-20
Palmer, Phan T. H. (Department: 2874)
Optical waveguides
With optical coupler
Switch
C385S016000, C385S020000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06320998
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to an optical switch, which connects selectively an optical input terminal with an optical output terminal.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A conventional micro-mechanical optical switch is described, for example, in Photonics Technology Letters, vol. 10, pp. 525-527, April, 1998. An optical switch described in this publication includes input optical fibers disposed along one side of a rectangular substrate, output optical fibers disposed along the crossing side, and movable mirrors arranged in a matrix on the substrate. The movable mirrors further include actuators that convert electric energy into mechanical actions.
Each of the movable mirrors reflects light toward determined direction. Therefore, required number of the movable mirrors is product between the number of input ports and output ports.
In general, the number of the mirrors in a single substrate is limited to around 2500, because cubic content of the actuator is larger than the mirror. When numbers of the input ports and the output ports are equal, those numbers are respectively limited to around 50.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an optical switch, which solve the above-described problem. According to the present invention, such an optical switch includes an optical input terminal, a first deflector disposed to receive light from the optical input terminal, controlled to change its deflection angle, second deflectors arranged in a substrate, the first deflector transmits light from the optical input terminal to one of the second deflectors selectively, and optical output terminals disposed to receive light from the second deflectors, the second deflectors transmit light from the first deflector to the optical output terminals.
Therefore, the optical switch has same number of optical input and output terminals as the deflectors. As s result, the number of the optical input and output terminals is increased.
REFERENCES:
patent: 6005993 (1999-12-01), MacDonald
Title:Free-Space Micromachined Optical Switches with Submillisecond Switching Time for Large—Scale Optical Crossconnects.Author : L. Y. Lin et al., Apr. 4, 1998, pp. 525-527.
Okayama Hideaki
Sasaki Hironori
OKI Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
Palmer Phan T. H.
Rabin & Berdo P.C.
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