JPH06208064A - Mechanical optical switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the optical switch having a good sealing property by providing a cylindrical pipe on the inner periphery of a solenoid coil, thereby facilitating winding of the solenoid coil and enabling easy assembly in such a manner that two fibers facing each other, the solenoid coil and a magnetic material maintain prescribed relative positions. CONSTITUTION:A moving optical fiber 101 is passed into the first cylindrical pipe 103 and is fixed like a cantilever on the end. The magnetic material 100 is fixed near to the central part of the moving bare optical fiber 101. The second cylindrical pipe 108 wound with the solenoid coil 105 provided in order to invert the magnetic poles at both ends thereof on its outer periphery and a pair of magnets 107 imparting magnetic attraction force in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis to the magnetic material 100 are provided. The inside of half-split circular cylinders 104 is fixed like a V-groove formed in a flat part. The second cylindrical pipe 108 is held by the first cylindrical pipe 103 and the half-split circular cylinders 104 and is inserted in this state into a cylindrical sleeve 106. As a result, the setting of the optimum relative positions of the solenoid coil 105 and the magnetic material 100, etc., are facilitated.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fiber movable mechanical optical switch used for optical communication and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a mechanical optical switch having a structure in which an optical fiber is directly driven to switch an optical path has a characteristic that the structure is simple and low insertion loss, downsizing and low driving power can be obtained. Therefore, many types of switch structures have been proposed so far.

A conventional mechanical optical switch will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional mechanical optical switch, in which a movable optical fiber 101 is attached to a first cylindrical tube 103.
And is fixed at the end of the first cylindrical tube 103. The magnetic body 100 is fixed near the center of the movable optical fiber 101, and the solenoid coil 105 is attached to the inner circumference of the cylindrical sleeve 106 so as to surround the magnetic body 100. The permanent magnet 107 is parallelly opposed to sandwich the magnetic body 100 and the solenoid coil 105, and the cylindrical sleeve 10
Attach to the outside of 6. As shown in the cross-sectional view of the mechanical optical switch in FIG.
A groove is formed and the stationary bare fiber 102 is fixed. The tip of the stationary bare fiber 102 and the movable bare fiber 10
It is assembled so as to be opposed to the tip of No. 1 at a predetermined interval.

When a current is passed through the solenoid coil 105 in such a structure, the magnetic body 100 is magnetized in the length direction, and the tip of the movable bare fiber 101 is attracted by the permanent magnets 107 magnetized in opposite directions. It moves to the V groove of the other side and faces the tip of the stationary bare fiber 102. If the direction of the current flowing through the solenoid coil 105 is changed so as to reverse the magnetization direction of the magnetic body 100, the tip of the movable bare fiber 101 moves to the other V groove and faces the other tip of the stationary bare fiber 102. Switch is complete.

[0005]

However, the above mechanical optical switch has the following problems. (1) It is difficult to hold the solenoid coil 105 at the optimum relative position with respect to the magnetic body 100. (2) It is difficult to pass the inside of the solenoid coil 105 without soiling the tip of the movable bare coil 101. (3) The cylindrical sleeve 106 needs a slit for its structure, but dust enters due to this slit, and it is difficult to seal a liquid such as index matching oil. (4) Tip of movable bare fiber 101 and stationary bare fiber 1
It is difficult to adjust and fix the gap with the tip of 02 to a predetermined gap. (5) Since the half-split cylinder 104 is divided into two, it is difficult to make the tip surfaces of the two stationary bare fibers 102 flush with each other.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the conventional problems as described above, so that the solenoid coil can be easily wound and two opposing fibers, the solenoid coil and the magnetic body can maintain a predetermined relative position. It is to obtain a structure that can be easily assembled and has a good sealing property.

[0007]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention allows a movable bare fiber to pass through a first cylindrical tube and fix it at the end of the first cylindrical tube. A magnetic body is fixed near the center of the movable bare fiber, and a solenoid coil is attached to a recess provided in the second cylindrical tube so as to surround the magnetic body, and a static bare optical fiber is formed on the flat portion of the half-cylinder. On the formed V groove, the movable bare fiber is fixed so as to face the tip of the movable bare fiber with a predetermined gap, and each of these parts is housed in a cylindrical sleeve.

[0008]

With this structure, the mechanical optical switch of the present invention makes it easy to position each component, and
The solenoid coil is not damaged, the ends of the coil can be easily treated, and the liquid can be sealed.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, in which a movable optical fiber 101 is penetrated through a first cylindrical tube 103 and fixed in a cantilever shape at an end. The magnetic body 100 is fixed near the center of the movable bare fiber 101, and the solenoid coil 105 provided for inverting the magnetic poles at both ends of the movable bare fiber 101 is wound around the second cylindrical tube 108 and the magnetic body 100. A pair of permanent magnets 107 that apply a magnetic attraction force in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis is provided. The inside of the half cylinder 104 is fixed on the V groove formed in the flat portion as shown in the sectional view of FIG. The second cylindrical tube 108 is connected to the first cylindrical tube 10
The cylindrical sleeve 106 in a state of being sandwiched between the 3 and the half cylinder 104.
(1) Setting the optimum relative position between the solenoid coil 105 and the magnetic body 100 (2) The tip of the movable bare fiber 101 and the stationary bare fiber 1
Setting a predetermined gap with the end of 02 (3) It is easy to align the end surfaces of the two stationary bare fibers 102 with each other.

The positional relationship between the above respective parts will be described with reference to the positional relationship explanatory diagrams of FIGS. The length of the second cylindrical tube 108 is the sum of the length a of the movable bare fiber 101 in FIG. 3 and the gap d between the two fibers in FIG. 4 minus c, which facilitates positioning. Further, by setting the distance b from the tip of the movable bare fiber 101 to the end of the magnetic body 100 to a predetermined value, the length of the magnetic body 100 is changed to the solenoid coil 1
The optimum position of 05 can be determined.

It should be noted that if a concave portion is provided so that a part of the outer circumference of the cylindrical tube 108 of FIG.

[0012]

As described above, the present invention has the following effects. (1) The solenoid coil can be held at the optimum relative position with respect to the magnetic material. (2) The movable bare coil can be passed through the second cylindrical tube around which the solenoid coil is wound without soiling the tip thereof. (3) Since the solenoid coil is housed in the recess of the second cylindrical tube, the coil is not damaged during assembly. (4) The gap between the tip of the movable bare fiber and the tip of the stationary bare fiber can be set to a predetermined gap. (5) The tip surfaces of the two stationary bare fibers can be made to be the same surface. (6) It is possible to prevent dust from entering the movable portion and to seal liquid. (7) It is possible to easily perform the above-mentioned assembly that requires difficult positioning.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a positional relationship of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a positional relationship of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a conventional mechanical optical switch.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a conventional mechanical optical switch.

[Explanation of symbols]

 100 Magnetic Material 101 Movable Bare Fiber 102 Stationary Bare Fiber 103 First Cylindrical Tube 104 Half Cylinder 105 Solenoid Coil 106 Cylindrical Sleeve 107 Permanent Magnet 108 Second Cylindrical Tube

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A core wire is penetrated through a first cylindrical pipe,
A cantilever-shaped fixed end of the cylindrical tube, and a movable bare fiber having a magnetic substance fixed near the central portion of the core wire; and a solenoid coil provided so as to surround the magnetic substance, On the V-groove formed on the flat portion of the half-cylinder of the permanent magnet and the permanent magnets arranged in parallel so as to sandwich the magnetic body and the solenoid coil, the stationary bare fiber has a predetermined distance from the tip of the movable bare fiber. In a self-holding type mechanical optical switch consisting of one or two stationary bare fibers fixed so as to face each other and a cylindrical sleeve accommodating the above-mentioned respective parts, the
The mechanical optical switch is characterized in that it is arranged so as to be sandwiched between the first cylindrical tube and the half cylinder. 2. The outer circumference of the second cylindrical tube is inscribed in the cylindrical sleeve, a recess is provided in a part of the outer circumference, and the recess is arranged so that the center of the recess coincides with the center of the magnetic body. The mechanical optical switch according to claim 1.