CN103149680B - Electrowetting-effect-based two-path liquid optical switch - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention proposes a two-way liquid optical switch based on the electrowetting effect. The optical switch includes an upper substrate, a transparent hard cavity, a lower substrate, a light shield, a dielectric layer, and an ITO electrode , ITO electrode , ITO electrode , colored liquid droplets and light holes, in which the transparent hard cavity is filled with colorless transparent liquid, three ITO electrodes are embedded in the lower substrate, and the intervals between the two are the same, the ITO electrodes Grounded, two light holes with the same diameter are symmetrically distributed in the center of the shading plate. The colored droplets in it conduct electricity, and the colorless transparent liquid does not conduct electricity. The liquid optical switch can realize two-way light on-off, and can effectively overcome the gravity effect.

Description

A dual liquid optical switch based on electrowetting effect

technical field

The invention relates to non-mechanical optical switch technology, more specifically, the invention relates to a two-way liquid optical switch technology based on electrowetting effect.

Background technique

An optical switch is a switch that switches on and off an optical signal in an optical fiber or waveguide optical path. It has attractive application prospects in the fields of remote optical communication, optical fiber sensing, optical network, and information display. At the same time, optical switches can also be used as components of devices such as optical attenuators, adjustable light valves, and spatial modulators. Among them, the liquid optical switch device has the advantages of miniaturization, simple manufacture and low energy consumption because it does not need to introduce movable solid components inside. There are two types of liquid optical switches: mechanical and non-mechanical. The mechanical liquid optical switch requires an external driving device, which is complicated and consumes high power. The response time of the device itself depends on the natural frequency of the external driving device, so the controllability of the device is poor and the response time is slow. Non-mechanical optical switches are generally realized based on the electrowetting effect and the dielectric force effect. Although the liquid optical switch based on the dielectric force effect has a fast response time and low operating voltage, the size of the liquid optical switch based on the dielectric force effect is relatively small due to the relatively weak dielectric force itself, which severely limits its application range. In the existing liquid optical switch based on the dielectric force effect, the light intensity ratio between the light on state and the light off state is within 100:1, and the performance of the device still needs to be improved. The current liquid optical switch can only realize the on-off of a single light source, which is difficult to meet the requirements of optical switching, wavelength selection and all-optical routing selection in the field of optical networks. The gravity effect of the liquid. When the liquid device is placed vertically, due to the gravity effect of the internal liquid, the light transmission of the device will be uneven, and a good switching effect cannot be achieved, so it cannot work normally.

Contents of the invention

The invention proposes a two-way liquid optical switch based on the electrowetting effect. As shown in Figure 1, the optical switch includes an upper substrate, a transparent hard cavity, a lower substrate, a light shield, a dielectric layer, and an ITO electrode. , ITO electrode , ITO electrode , colored liquid droplets and light holes, in which the transparent hard cavity is filled with colorless transparent liquid, three ITO electrodes are embedded in the lower substrate, and the intervals between the two are the same, the ITO electrodes Grounded, two light holes with the same diameter are symmetrically distributed in the center of the shading plate. The colored droplets in it conduct electricity, and the colorless transparent liquid does not conduct electricity.

As shown in Figure 1, the liquid device is in the initial state, the colored liquid droplet is located at the center of the lower substrate, and the two light holes are not covered by the colored liquid droplet. At this time, the liquid device is in a two-way light-on state. respectively in the ITO electrode and ITO electrodes The voltage V is alternately applied to the top. Due to the electrowetting effect, the colored droplet will move back and forth on the lower substrate. When the colored droplet moves to one side to cover the light hole on this side, the light hole on the other side can still pass through the light. Therefore, the on-off function of the two-way light can be realized by controlling the position of the colored liquid droplet. Accompanying drawing 2 is respectively in ITO electrode and ITO electrodes The top view of the colored droplet moving back and forth on the lower substrate when the voltage V is alternately applied to the upper substrate.

Preferably, the transparent hard cavity has a length d ₁ ≥ 10 mm and d ₁ ≤ 12 mm, a width d ₂ ≥ 6 mm and d ₂ ≤ 8 mm, and a height d ₃ ≥ 6 mm and d ₃ ≤ 8 mm.

Preferably, the ITO electrode and ITO electrodes Same size, length d ₄ ≥ d ₂ and d ₄ ≤9mm, width d ₅ ≥3.5mm and d ₅ ≤5mm, ITO electrode The length d ₆ ≥ d ₂ and d ₆ ≤ 9mm, the width d ₇ ≥ 1.5mm and d ₇ ≤ 2mm, and the distance between the three electrodes is d ₈ ≥ 0.25mm and d ₈ ≤ 0.5mm.

Preferably, the colored droplet diameter d ₉ ≥ 3 mm and d ₉ ≤ 5 mm.

Preferably, the length of the shading plate is d ₁₀ ≥ 12 mm and d ₁₀ ≤ 15 mm, the width of the shading plate is d ₁₁ ≥ 8 mm and d ₁₁ ≤ 10 mm, and the diameters of the two light holes in the central symmetry of the shading plate are both d ₁₂ ≥ 1 mm and d ₁₂ ≤ 1.5 mm. The distance between the centers of the two light holes is d ₁₃ ≥ d ₉ + d ₁₂ and d ₁₃ ≤ 2 D - d ₁₂ , where D is the maximum displacement of the colored droplet moving on the lower substrate.

Preferably, the colorless transparent liquid and the colored droplets in the transparent hard cavity have the same density.

Description of drawings

Accompanying drawing 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a two-way liquid optical switch based on the electrowetting effect.

Accompanying drawing 2 is in ITO electrode and ITO electrodes A top view of colored droplets moving back and forth on the lower substrate when voltage is alternately applied.

Accompanying drawing 3 is in the embodiment in ITO electrode and ITO electrodes Schematic diagram of the displacement of colored droplets on the lower substrate when voltage is alternately applied.

The pictorial symbols in the above-mentioned drawings are:

1 upper substrate, 2 transparent hard cavity, 3 lower substrate, 4 light-shielding plate, 5 dielectric layer, 6 ITO electrode , 7 ITO electrodes , 8 ITO electrodes , 9 light holes, 10 colored droplets, 11 colorless transparent liquid.

It should be understood that the above drawings are only schematic and not drawn to scale.

Detailed ways

An embodiment of a two-way liquid optical switch based on the electrowetting effect proposed by the present invention will be described in detail below to further describe the present invention. It is necessary to point out that the following examples are only used for further description of the present invention, and cannot be interpreted as limiting the protection scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art make some non-essential improvements and improvements to the present invention according to the above-mentioned content of the invention. Adjustment still belongs to the protection scope of the present invention.

An embodiment of the present invention is that both the upper substrate and the lower substrate are made of 10mm×8mm PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) material, and the transparent hard cavity is 10mm×8mm×8mm PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) ) material. ITO electrode and ITO electrodes The size is 8mm×3.5mm, ITO electrode The size is 8mm×2mm, and the distance between two electrodes is 0.5mm. The size of the shading plate is 10mm×8mm, the diameters of the two symmetrical light holes in the center are both 1.0mm, and the distance between the centers of the two light holes is 5.5mm. The colored droplet is formed by mixing ink and sodium chloride solution in a certain proportion, the density is 1.25 g/cm ³ , and the diameter of the colored droplet is 4mm. The colorless transparent liquid filled in the transparent hard cavity is optical liquid SL-5267 with a density of 1.26 g/cm ³ . As shown in Figure 1, in the initial state, the colored liquid droplet is located at the center of the lower substrate, and at this time the two light holes are in the light-on state. ITO electrode ground, to the ITO electrode Applied voltage, due to the electrowetting effect, the colored droplets will flow toward the ITO electrode Direction movement, the light hole on the right side is covered by the colored liquid, and the light cannot pass through, and the light hole on the left side can still pass through the light; the same is true for the ITO electrode Applied voltage, the colored droplet moves towards the ITO electrode Direction movement, the left light hole is covered by colored liquid droplets, unable to pass light, and the right light hole resumes light. The top view of the colored liquid drop moving back and forth on the lower substrate is shown in Fig. 2 .

Accompanying drawing 3 is the applied voltage in the embodiment in ITO electrode and ITO electrodes Schematic diagram of the displacement of the colored droplet moving on the lower substrate. As shown in FIG. 3 , in the embodiment, the maximum displacement of the colored liquid drop on the lower substrate to the left is 3.2 mm, and the maximum displacement to the right is 3.6 mm. The colored liquid droplets can alternately cover the two light holes to realize the function of a two-way optical switch. According to the parameters set in this embodiment, the light attenuation capability of the optical switch is 1dB~30dB, the light transmission loss is 0.67dB, and the response time is 177ms.

Claims (2)

1. based on a two-path liquid optical switch for the moistening effect of electricity, comprising: upper substrate, clear hard cavity, infrabasal plate, shadow shield, dielectric layer, ITO electrode , ITO electrode , ITO electrode , chromonic, light hole, it is characterized in that, fill colourless transparent liquid in clear hard cavity, three pieces of ITO electrode are from left to right embedded in infrabasal plate successively, and interval is identical between two, ITO electrode ground connection, shadow shield Central Symmetry is distributed with the identical light hole of two diameters, and chromonic conducts electricity, and colourless transparent liquid is non-conductive, and clear hard cavity is long d ₁>=10mm and d ₁≤ 12mm, wide d ₂>=6mm and d ₂≤ 8mm is high d ₃>=6mm and d ₃≤ 8mm.

2. a kind of two-path liquid optical switch based on the moistening effect of electricity according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, in clear hard cavity, colourless transparent liquid is identical with the density of chromonic.