JPH01188818A - Optical fiber change-over switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To correctly discriminate a trouble condition by switching and connecting a light connector to a pair of desired light circuits. CONSTITUTION:The title switch is composed of two light circuits 5a, 5b... or above with an incident side optical fiber 2 and a transmitting side optical fiber 4 to transmit the light to a light receiving element 3 as a pair and a light connector 6 to transmit a light from the incident side optical fiber 2 to transmitting side optical fiber 4 while it is connected to any pair of an incident side optical fiber 2 and a transmitting side optical fiber 4 out of the light circuits 5a, 5b.... The light connector 6 can switch and connect to a pair of desired light circuits 5a, 5b.... Thus, the reliability of an action is made higher, the connecting condition of the light connector 6 can be easily confirmed with eyes, and therefore, an artificial switching error due to the mistake, etc., is minimized.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to an optical fiber changeover switch using optical fibers.

(Prior Art) There have been various kinds of optical switches, and the main ones are as follows.

(1) A mechanical shutter is placed between two optical fibers facing each other with their optical axes aligned, and the shutter is moved to open and close the gap between the two optical fibers, thereby interrupting and disconnecting the light. What I did.

(2) A device that mechanically bends an optical fiber to generate light loss and detects increases and decreases in the amount of light.

(3) A reflective object is provided on the end face of an optical fiber, and the presence or absence of reflected light is detected.

(Problems with conventional technology) All conventional optical switches detect changes in the amount of light and turn on.
・Since this is an OFF judgment function, if the optical fiber is disconnected or some kind of failure occurs in the light-emitting element or light-receiving element, it is possible to determine whether the light is OFF or if the light is OFF due to a failure. It was not possible to determine whether this was the case.

(Object of the Invention) An object of the present invention is to provide an optical fiber changeover switch that can accurately determine a failure state.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The optical fiber changeover switch of the present invention has an optical fiber selector switch according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. Two or more optical circuits 5a, 5b, which are paired with the optical fiber 4, and optical circuits 5a, 5
b- Optical connection that connects the input side optical fiber 2 and the transmission side optical fiber 4 of any pair of the skewers and transmits the light from the input side optical fiber 2 to the transmission side optical fiber 4! ! 6, the optical connector 6 is composed of a desired pair of optical circuits 5a,
5b... can be switched and connected.

(Function) In the present invention, when the optical connector 6 is placed opposite the input side optical fiber 2 and the transmission side optical fiber 4 of the optical circuit 5a to connect both optical fibers as shown in FIG. 2a, one light emitting element l is connected. The light incident on the input side optical fiber 2 is transmitted to the optical connector 6. The light is received by the light receiving element 3 through the transmission side optical fiber 4, and the output is “
1'''.

At this time, the light emitting element and the light receiving element of the other optical circuit 5b are not connected by the optical connector 6, so the output becomes "O".

Next, as shown in Figure 2, rotate the optical connector 6 by SO degrees to change its orientation, and switch the optical connector 6 to the input side optical fiber 2 and the transmission side optical fiber 4 of the optical circuit 5b. , the light emitted from the light emitting element 1 of the optical circuit 5b is received by the light receiving element 3 through the input side optical fiber 2, the optical connector 6, and the transmission side optical fiber 4, and the output becomes "1". Since the light emitting element and the light receiving element of the optical circuit 5a are not connected by the optical connector 6, the output becomes "On".

When the outputs of these two sets of optical circuits 5a and 5b are input to an exclusive OR circuit (E!-OR circuit), the output of the same circuit (when the light is cut off: "O", when the light is continued: " l”)
is as shown in Table 1.

As is clear from this table, under normal conditions, that is, when the outputs of the two pairs of optical circuits 5a and 5b are different (when "1"-"0" or "0"-"t") The output of the circuit is “1”
”, and in other cases, that is, the two pairs of optical circuits 5a, 5
When the outputs of b are the same (1"-"17 or "O"-0"), the output of the εx-OR circuit is "0", and this "
When it is on, it can be determined that the abnormality is due to a contact failure or other causes.

Table 1 - (Example) The one in Figure 1 is a case where there are two pairs of optical circuits, but in the present invention, the optical circuits may have three pairs as shown in Figure 4, or more. Good too.

2nd rI! The optical connector 6 of I is an optical fiber curved into a substantially semicircular shape, but the optical connector 6 may be of other shapes, for example, as shown in FIG.
may be made to face the input side optical fiber 2 and the transmission side optical fiber 4, and the curved diameter of the curved portion 8 may be made larger than that.

Further, the optical connector 6 may be other than an optical fiber 1, for example, it may be a prism as shown in FIG. It is reflected and enters the transmission side optical fiber 4.

In the present invention, a light emitting diode (LED), for example, is used as the light emitting element 1, and a photodiode (PD), for example, is used as the light receiving element 3.

(Effects of the Invention) The optical fiber changeover switch of the present invention has the following effects.

(2) Since it uses a combination of two or more optical circuits, its operation is highly reliable.

(2) Since the connection status of the optical connection base 6 can be easily confirmed visually, human switching errors due to misunderstandings are reduced.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of the optical fiber changeover switch of the present invention, Fig. 2a is a diagram for explaining the use of the changeover switch, Fig. An explanatory diagram of an embodiment in which the shape of the container is changed, FIG. 4 is a plan explanatory diagram when there are three pairs of optical circuits, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram when the optical connector is a prism. The input side optical fiber 3 is the light receiving element 4, the transmission side optical fiber 5 &, 51) ae is the optical circuit 6 is the optical connector Fig. 1 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Claims (1)

[Claims] Two or more optical circuits 5a, 5b, .
It is composed of an optical connector 6 that connects to the input side optical fiber 2 and the transmission side optical fiber 4 of any pair of 5b... and transmits the light from the input side optical fiber 2 to the transmission side optical fiber 4. The optical connector 6 connects the desired pair of optical circuits 5a and 5b.
An optical fiber changeover switch characterized by being capable of switching connections to...