CN111458807A

CN111458807A - Optical fiber switch

Info

Publication number: CN111458807A
Application number: CN202010499314.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李裔; 孟彦龙; 裘燕青
Original assignee: Hangzhou Feibaisi Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Hangzhou Feibaisi Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-04
Filing date: 2020-06-04
Publication date: 2020-07-28

Abstract

The invention discloses an optical fiber switch, which comprises a tube, a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber, an actuator, a first electrode, a second electrode and a direct current power supply, wherein the tube is provided with a first optical fiber and a second optical fiber; one first optical fiber and a plurality of second optical fibers; the front end of the first optical fiber enters the tube, and the second optical fiber is positioned in front of the tube; the actuator enables the first optical fiber to swing to establish a conducting relation with any second optical fiber; the first electrode is fixed on the surface of the first optical fiber; the second electrode is fixed on the inner wall of the tube; the first electrode and the second electrode are respectively connected to two ends of a direct current power supply, so that the first electrode, the second electrode and the direct current power supply jointly form a capacitance sensing module; and in the swinging direction of the first optical fiber, the first electrode and/or the second electrode have unique values to determine the variation of the capacitance parameter, so as to obtain the offset of the tail end of the first optical fiber relative to the pipe wall. When the position of the end face of the input optical fiber does not reach the preset value, the system can automatically adjust the driving signal to restore the preset value so as to resist external interference and reduce transmission loss.

Description

Optical fiber switch

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of optical communication, in particular to an optical fiber switch for controlling the swing of a cantilever single optical fiber.

Background

The optical switch enables optical signals from one or more input optical fibers to be selectively switched to one of a plurality of output optical fibers or to each other between the plurality of input optical fibers and a common output optical fiber. Conventional optical switches can employ various configurations (including mechanical switching, opto-electrical switching, or opto-magnetic switching) to effect switching.

In the manufacturing process of the optical switch, the applied driving signal and the corresponding position of the emergent end face of the optical fiber are strictly calibrated in advance, but the alignment between the input optical fiber and the output optical fiber can be deviated due to the influence of the surrounding environment such as temperature, vibration and the like, so that the transmission loss is increased.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a fiber switch for controlling the swing of a cantilever single fiber that solves one or more of the above-mentioned problems.

In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme provided by the invention is as follows:

an optical fiber switch comprises a tube, a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber, an actuator, a first electrode, a second electrode and a direct current power supply.

One first optical fiber and a plurality of second optical fibers; the front end of the first optical fiber enters the tube, and the second optical fiber is positioned in front of the tube; the actuator swings the first fiber into a conductive relationship with any of the second fibers.

The first electrode is fixed on the surface of the first optical fiber; the second electrode is fixed on the inner wall of the tube; the first electrode and the second electrode are respectively connected to two ends of a direct current power supply, so that the first electrode, the second electrode and the direct current power supply jointly form a capacitance sensing module;

and in the swinging direction of the first optical fiber, the first electrode and/or the second electrode have unique values to determine the variation of the capacitance parameter, so as to obtain the offset of the tail end of the first optical fiber relative to the pipe wall.

The first optical fiber is a single optical fiber (one) input optical fiber which is fixed in the center of the actuator, the tail end of the optical fiber extends out of the actuator and enters the tube in a cantilever state, and the actuator can deviate from the axial bending and drive the orientation of the tail end of the first optical fiber to swing correspondingly by modulating the driving signal, so that the light emitting direction at the tail end of the first optical fiber is changed. A plurality of (n ≧ 2) second optical fibers are fixedly placed opposite to the emission ports of the emergent optical fibers as output optical fibers, and when a driving signal of the control actuator enables the emergent light to be aligned to one of the second optical fibers as the output optical fiber, an input and output channel is established; in the process of conducting the light path, a capacitance sensing module which is composed of the first electrode, the second electrode and the direct-current power supply is used as a signal to detect and correct the accurate condition of the first optical fiber swing; when a signal is applied to the actuator, the actuator bends and drives the tail end of the first optical fiber to move; the distance between the first fiber and the tube is d, and the distance d between the corresponding electrodes can be considered to be changed; the external leads of the two electrodes are equivalent to the input signals of the two capacitive sensors, and at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode is a unique value; corresponding data of the capacitive sensor can be obtained according to the capacitive digital converter; the real-time relative position of the tail end of the optical fiber is further obtained and can be used for correcting the relation between the input quantity and the output quantity of the actuator, and when the end face position of the input optical fiber does not reach the preset value, the system can automatically adjust the driving signal to enable the driving signal to recover to the preset value so as to resist external interference, adjust the collimation of an optical path and reduce transmission loss.

The specific form of the actuator in the present invention is not limited, and may be piezoelectric ceramics or electromagnetic actuation; and the limitation is carried out according to the actual use condition.

In the invention, the value of at least one of the first electrode and the second electrode in the swinging direction of the first optical fiber can determine a unique value, and whether the first optical fiber swings in place can be determined through the unique parameter value.

In the present invention, three specific structures are provided that can determine a unique value:

further: the first electrode comprises a first metal cavity and a first lead, and the first metal cavity is wrapped on the circumferential surface of the optical fiber; the first metal cavity is connected with a first lead; the second electrodes are arranged in the tube in a circumferentially and equally-divided manner; the plurality of second electrodes are insulated from each other, and the variation of the capacitance parameter is obtained from each second electrode.

The entire fiber surface may be surrounded by the first metal cavity or only a portion may be non-limiting. However, the first metal cavity and the optical fiber need to be in close contact, so that the optical fiber can be ensured to be closer to the surface of the optical fiber, and the attitude and the position information of the end part of the optical fiber can be obtained more accurately.

This setting is due to the very small diameter of the fiber, which is not convenient for other operations; because the second electrodes are insulated and not conducted with each other, the first electrode has unique corresponding relation in the second electrodes, and signals generated by capacitance change can be effectively distinguished.

The setting of the second electrodes can obtain signals equally, preferably, the number of the second electrodes is four, and a single optical fiber scanner does scanning, the swinging direction is not fixed, so that a plurality of capacitance sensing modules are needed for comprehensive judgment. Here, four second electrodes are provided, which correspond to four capacitance sensing modules, and the position determination of the optical fiber is comprehensively calculated based on these four capacitance values.

Further: the first metal cavity is a metal coating.

This is again due to the fact that the optical fiber is small in size and the other metal cavity forms are not easy to process, where the first metal cavity is a metal coating on the surface of the optical fiber for simplicity of construction. The type of metal and the thickness of the coating layer are not limited and can be selected by those skilled in the art according to the actual situation.

Further: opposite to the structure, the first electrodes are a plurality of electrodes which are insulated from each other and are circumferentially equally arranged on the surface of the optical fiber; the second electrode comprises a second metal cavity and a second lead, and the second metal cavity is wrapped on the inner surface of the tube; the second metal cavity is electrically connected with a second lead; the variation of the capacitance parameter is obtained from each first electrode.

Further: the second metal cavity is a metal coating. Here, when the tube is made of a non-metal material, the second electrode may be provided in order to simplify the structure of the second electrode.

Further: the tube is a metal tube and the second metal cavity is the metal tube itself. The structure is the simplest.

Since the specific position of the tail end of the first optical fiber on the two-dimensional plane is not determined, the metal tube is arranged into a cylindrical tube for convenient matching, and thus any direction of the swinging of the optical fiber is provided with an electrode corresponding to the metal tube to form a capacitance sensing module.

Further: the first electrodes are insulated from each other and are circumferentially and equally arranged on the surface of the optical fiber; the second electrodes are arranged in the tube in a circumferentially and equally-divided manner corresponding to the first electrodes; the plurality of second electrodes are insulated from each other; the capacitance variation is obtained from each of the first electrodes and/or the second electrodes.

With the arrangement, the capacitance variation can be obtained from any one of the first electrode and the second electrode, and the connection can be made according to the actual situation.

In the above-described structure, since the entire size of the present apparatus is small, the optical fiber itself is smaller. The electrodes (first and second electrodes, and in particular the first electrode) may be in the form of a metallic coating, for example by applying an intermittent metallic coating (drawn in an axial line) to the surface of the optical fibre and then attaching a lead wire to the extreme end of the tube or first fibre, which simplifies construction.

Further: the actuator is a piezoelectric ceramic. The use is simple and reliable.

Further: and the capacitance sensing module is connected with a capacitance digital converter. The specific type of the capacitance-to-digital converter is not limited, and is selected according to the actual use requirement.

Further: the actuator is fixed within the tube. In order to make the structure more stable and simple; the actuator is directly fixed in the pipe through the bracket, the structure is simple, and the use is convenient.

The invention has the technical effects that:

the optical fiber switch has a simple structure, realizes accurate measurement of the swing posture and position of the input optical fiber by using simple and effective capacitance sensing, feeds the information back to a rear-end system, and can automatically adjust the driving signal to restore the driving signal to a preset value, thereby correcting the swing position, and achieving the purposes of resisting environmental interference and reducing transmission loss.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the invention and not to limit the invention.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the general structure of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional structure of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic circuit diagram of the capacitive-to-digital converter of the capacitive sensing module FDC 2214;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the fiber switch of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural view of the second embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is another schematic structural view of the second embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of a third structure of the embodiment;

fig. 9 is a schematic cross-sectional view of fig. 8.

Wherein the figures include the following reference numerals:

a first optical fiber 1, a tube 2, a first electrode 3, a second electrode 4, a direct current power supply 5, an actuator 6, and a second optical fiber 7.

Detailed Description

The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings and specific embodiments, wherein the exemplary embodiments and descriptions are provided only for the purpose of illustrating the present invention and are not to be construed as unduly limiting the invention.

It should be noted that the embodiments and features of the embodiments in the present application may be combined with each other without conflict. The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.

It is noted that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments according to the present application. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" are intended to include the plural forms as well, and it should be understood that when the terms "comprises" and/or "comprising" are used in this specification, they specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, devices, components, and/or combinations thereof, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

Example one

An optical fiber switch comprises a tube 2, a first optical fiber 1, a second optical fiber 7, an actuator 6, a first electrode 3, a second electrode 4 and a direct current power supply 5. The actuator 6 is a piezoelectric ceramic. The actuator 6 is fixed inside the tube.

One first optical fiber (input optical fiber) and a plurality of second optical fibers (output optical fibers); the front end of the first optical fiber enters the tube, and the second optical fiber is positioned in front of the tube; the actuator swings the first fiber into a conductive relationship with any of the second fibers. And signal transmission is realized after the light path is conducted.

the first electrode comprises a first metal cavity and a first lead, wherein the first metal cavity (in the embodiment, the first metal cavity is a conductive coating, such as a metal coating) is wrapped on the circumferential surface of the optical fiber; the first metal cavity is connected with a first lead; the second electrodes are arranged in the tube in a circumferentially and equally-divided manner; the plurality of second electrodes are insulated from each other, and the variation of a capacitance parameter (such as voltage, capacitance or the like) is obtained from each second electrode.

In some embodiments, in order to ensure the accuracy of the verification result, the number of the second electrodes is four, and the second electrodes are arranged in the tube in four equal parts in the circumferential direction of the first optical fiber; and two adjacent second electrodes are insulated.

Fig. 2 is a top cross-sectional view of the tube and the first optical fiber, which shows that four second electrodes are fixed on the inner wall of the tube, the second electrodes are insulated from each other, so as to ensure that the second electrodes are not conducted, wherein the non-conduction can be realized directly by using distance, and when two second electrodes are closer, an insulating layer can be directly added; when the tube is a metal tube, an insulating layer may be added between the tube and the metal tube.

The tendency of the wire in the present invention is not necessarily limited, which is common knowledge of those skilled in the art.

When a vibration signal is input to the actuator 6, piezoelectric ceramics (PZT) is used as the actuator; when the actuator starts to vibrate, and the distance d between each pair of plates (electrodes) is considered to be changed, the two sets of leads are equivalent to the input signals of the two sensors, each second electrode is used as a unique value in the embodiment, the signal of each second electrode is respectively acquired and is transmitted to the capacitive sensing module FDC2214, and the circuit diagram is shown in fig. 3 (a circuit diagram of the capacitive digital converter; a circuit diagram is given here, and can be selected according to actual needs). The DATA and d of the output DATA of the FDC2214 are linearly related, and the motion information such as the posture, the position and the like of the tail end of the first optical fiber can be analyzed by analyzing the measurement quantities of a plurality of sensors; and feeding back the information to an actuator to adjust the swing position of the first optical fiber so as to ensure that the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber (the second optical fiber to be conducted) are conducted.

Measurement principle of capacitance:

a typical capacitive sensing module, such as an FDC2214 capacitive-to-digital converter, functions to determine the L C oscillator frequency of the sensing signal and measure capacitance based on the frequency ratio, which is calculated as follows:

wherein f is_refxIs a reference clock frequency, f_sensorxIs the measured real-time frequency (as shown below) and DATA is the output signal.

And according to a derivation formula:

it can be known that the measurement DATA DATA is only related to the parallel plate separation d.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of the operation of the fiber switch of the present invention; the driving signal is applied to the actuator, the orientation (swing) of the first optical fiber (input optical fiber) is changed, the sensor module (composed of the first electrode, the second electrode and the direct-current power supply) measures the position of the end part (provided with the port) of the first optical fiber, the position is compared with a preset position to determine whether the position is in an error range, the conduction signal is good in the error range, and the loss is lowest; when the error is not in the error range, the processor calculates the adjustment range and drives the fine adjustment amount of the signal.

In summary, the present invention provides an optical fiber switch, which can obtain the swing posture and position of the tail end of the first optical fiber (input optical fiber) through capacitance sensing, and can correct the input signal of the actuator according to the capacitance sensing module, and ensure the conduction of the optical fiber switch and the transmission of the signal.

Example two

The difference is shown in fig. 5-7. In this embodiment, the first electrodes are a plurality of first electrodes, the plurality of first electrodes are insulated from each other, and are circumferentially equally arranged on the surface of the optical fiber (here, the first electrodes may be metal coatings or carbon coatings which are axially continuous and circumferentially unconnected with each other); the second electrode is one, the second electrode includes a second metal cavity and a second lead (as shown in fig. 5, the metal cavity is a conductive coating, such as a metal layer or a carbon layer, which is fully distributed on the inner wall of the tube), the tube is a metal tube, and the second metal cavity is the metal tube itself (as shown in fig. 7, the metal cavity is the metal tube itself); the second metal cavity is wrapped on the inner surface of the pipe; the second metal cavity is electrically connected with a second lead; the variation of the capacitance parameter is obtained from each first electrode.

Generally, this manufacturing difficulty is slightly increased due to the very small size of the optical fiber; however, the correction and detection principles and results are the same as those of the first embodiment, and are not described in detail herein.

The value of the first electrode can be determined uniquely here. Therefore, the acquisition of the signals is accurate and clear.

The angle of the difference between the conduction of the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber can be accurately fed back, and the first optical fiber and the second optical fiber are completely conducted by adjusting the swing angle of the first optical fiber again, so that the loss is reduced.

EXAMPLE III

In distinction to the above-described embodiments: in this embodiment, the first electrode and the second electrode are in one-to-one correspondence, wherein the first electrode may be a common electrode patch, or may be an axially continuous, circumferentially discontinuous metal coating; the second electrode is the same; but the first electrode and the second electrode need to correspond to each other. As shown in fig. 8 and 9. In the tube, the same calibration, detection and conduction functions as in the first and second embodiments are achieved, and are not described in detail herein.

The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the present invention, and various modifications and changes may be made by those skilled in the art. Any modification, equivalent replacement, or improvement made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A fiber optic switch, comprising: comprises a tube, a first optical fiber, a second optical fiber, an actuator, a first electrode, a second electrode and a direct current power supply;

one first optical fiber and a plurality of second optical fibers; the front end of the first optical fiber enters the tube, and the second optical fiber is positioned in front of the tube;

the actuator enables the first optical fiber to swing to establish a conducting relation with any second optical fiber;

2. The fiber optic switch of claim 1, wherein: the first electrode comprises a first metal cavity and a first lead, and the first metal cavity is wrapped on the circumferential surface of the optical fiber; the first metal cavity is connected with a first lead;

the second electrodes are arranged in the tube in a circumferentially and equally-divided manner; the plurality of second electrodes are insulated from each other, and the variation of the capacitance parameter is obtained from each second electrode.

3. The fiber optic switch of claim 2, wherein: the first metal cavity is a metal coating.

4. The fiber optic switch of claim 1, wherein: the first electrodes are insulated from each other and are circumferentially and equally arranged on the surface of the optical fiber;

the second electrode comprises a second metal cavity and a second lead, and the second metal cavity is wrapped on the inner surface of the tube; the second metal cavity is electrically connected with a second lead; the variation of the capacitance parameter is obtained from each first electrode.

5. The fiber optic switch of claim 4, wherein: the second metal cavity is a metal coating.

6. The fiber optic switch of claim 4, wherein: the tube is a metal tube and the second metal cavity is the metal tube itself.

7. The fiber optic switch of claim 1, wherein: the first electrodes are insulated from each other and are circumferentially and equally arranged on the surface of the optical fiber; the second electrodes are arranged in the tube in a circumferentially and equally-divided manner corresponding to the first electrodes; the plurality of second electrodes are insulated from each other; the capacitance variation is obtained from each of the first electrodes and/or the second electrodes.

8. The fiber optic switch of claim 1, wherein: the actuator is a piezoelectric ceramic.

9. The fiber optic switch of claim 1, wherein: and the capacitance sensing module is connected with a capacitance digital converter.

10. The fiber optic switch of claim 1, wherein: the actuator is fixed within the tube.