JPH06265799A - Optical switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a 1XN optical switch which is small in size and has a little loss. CONSTITUTION:This optical switch is constituted of movable optical fibers 102a to 102d obtained by making a coated fiber pierce a cylindrical tube, fixing it in a cantilever state at the end of the cylindrical tube, and sticking a magnetic body 110; a permanent magnet 107 arranged in parallel with the extending direction of the magnetic body; and plural fixed optical fibers 101 fixed so that the coated fiber may be opposed to the tip of the movable optical fiber at specified interval inside the cylindrical tube.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art 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. Many types of switch structures have been proposed so far.

FIG. 4 shows a conventional optical fiber direct drive type 1 × 2.
In the cross-sectional view of the optical switch, the core wire is fixed to the cylindrical tube 403 in a cantilever shape, and one movable optical fiber 401 in which a magnetic body 410 having desired magnetic characteristics is fixed to the surface in the vicinity of the tip, Hollow solenoid coil 405 provided to reverse the magnetic poles at both ends of body 410, and magnetic body 41
A pair of permanent magnets 407 that apply a magnetic attraction force to 0 in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, and two fixed optical fibers 402a, 4a fixed in square holes provided inside the cylindrical member 404.
02b, the cylindrical tube 403 and the cylindrical member 404 are aligned and held, and the solenoid coil 405 and the permanent magnet 407 are also provided.
It is composed of a cylindrical sleeve 406 for fixing.

The operation of this switch is as follows. The movable optical fiber 401 is magnetically attracted to either one of the pair of permanent magnets 407 according to the magnetic poles at both ends of the magnetic body 410, and the tip thereof is at the corner of a square hole formed inside the cylindrical member 404. Book fixed optical fiber 4
Optically coupled to either 02a or 402b. When the magnetic poles at both ends of the magnetic body 410 are reversed by energizing the solenoid coil 405 and applying a magnetic field along the optical axis to the magnetic body 410, the movable optical fiber 401 is attracted to the other permanent magnet side and the other stationary state. Optically couple to an optical fiber. Even when the current is not supplied, the magnetic body 410 is magnetically attracted to the permanent magnet 407, so that the coupling state with one of the fixed optical fibers 402a and 402b can be maintained, and the self-holding type switching can be performed. You can get the action. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 64-11925 discloses such a structure.

[0005]

However, since the conventional optical fiber direct drive type optical switch has one port on the input side and two ports on the output side (1 × 2 optical switch), it forms a 1 × N optical switch. Has a problem in that a plurality of 1 × 2 optical switches are required. (In order to form a 1 × 4, 1 × 8 optical switch, a method of connecting 3 × 7 1 × 2 in a tree type is usually used.) Moreover, in order to operate the optical switch, it is absolutely necessary. It had the drawback of needing to be powered.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a movable optical fiber having a core wire fixed in a cantilever shape and having a magnetic substance fixed in the vicinity of its tip, and the tip of the movable optical fiber and its own To solve the above problems by forming an optical switch from a plurality of fixed optical fibers that are respectively fixed in a plurality of concave portions so as to face the tip, and a permanent magnet that is arranged along the extension direction of the magnetic body. planned.

[0007]

In the optical switch of the present invention, when the magnetic substance is attracted by the magnet, the tip of one movable optical fiber moves in the recess and faces the desired fixed fiber.

[0008]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the present invention, 1 × 4.
FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing an optical switch, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a circumferential arrangement relationship between a magnet and a fixed optical fiber at this time. A movable optical fiber 101 having a pipe-shaped magnetic body 110 made of a magnetic material such as Fe alloy is fixed to one end of a cylindrical sleeve 106 by a cylindrical tube 103 in a cantilever shape, and is arranged in parallel with the magnetic body 110. Permanent magnet 10
7 is provided, and the four fixed optical fibers 102a fixed to the corner grooves of the square holes inside the cylindrical member 104 fixed to the cylindrical sleeve 106 after facing the end of the movable optical fiber 101. , 102b, 102c,
102d is installed.

Next, the operation will be described. In Figure 1,
The magnetic body 110 is attracted to the permanent magnet 107. As a result, the tip of the movable optical fiber 101 is
It faces any of the four fixed optical fibers 102a, 102b, 102c, and 102d in the corner groove of the square hole inside 4. Now, a case will be described where the tip of the movable optical fiber 101 facing the fixed optical fiber 102b in FIG. 2 is switched to face the fixed optical fiber 102c. In order to make the tip of the movable optical fiber 101 face the fixed optical fiber 102c, the magnetic body 110 may be moved in the direction in which the fixed optical fiber 102c is fixed.

In order to move the magnetic body 110, the magnet 107 may be moved along the circumference of the cylindrical sleeve 106 toward the outside of the fixed optical fiber 102c. Magnet 10
As means for moving 7 along the circumference of the cylindrical sleeve 106, there are methods such as manual operation and stepping motor. The manual method makes it possible to realize an optical switch that does not require any power. In addition, the use of a motor or the like has the advantage that it can be operated remotely.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the positional relationship in the circumferential direction between the fixed optical fiber and the permanent magnet when a 1 × 6 optical switch is manufactured. By moving the permanent magnets in such a positional relationship, a desired 1 × N optical switch can be constructed.

[0012]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, the loss can be reduced as compared with the conventional switch for connecting a large number of 1 × 2 optical switches to switch a large number, so that the size is small and the loss is low. The 1 × N optical switch can be realized.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of the structure of an optical switch of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an axial sectional view showing the movement of the optical switch of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an axial sectional view showing the movement of an optical switch according to another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a conventional optical switch.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 movable optical fiber 102a, b, c, d fixed optical fiber 103 cylindrical tube 104 cylindrical member 106 cylindrical sleeve 107 permanent magnet

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A movable optical fiber in which a core wire is penetrated through a cylindrical tube, fixed in a cantilever shape at the end of the cylindrical tube, and a magnetic material is fixed to the core wire, and an extension direction of the magnetic material. And a plurality of fixed optical fibers fixed so that the core wire faces the tip of the movable optical fiber at a predetermined interval inside the columnar member. A mechanical optical switch.