JPS58174903A - Optical switch and optical switch circuit - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for intricate wirings and storage elements and to make constitution simple by putting an optical filter into and out from an optical path in accordance with the switching operation of on and off. CONSTITUTION:When the actuator 21 of an optical switch SW1 is depressed, a filter part 20 moves downward and a filter B shuts off the optical path, thereby putting the switch in a locked position. On the other hand, the filter part 20 is located above where a filter R is in the position to shut off the optical path and in an open position while an optical switch SW2 is held without depressing. The combination of both switches and the circuit state thereof are such that, while both switches are in the open or locked position, the filter R or B in both switches enters the optical path, and the light of a wavelength sigma2 or above or a wavelength sigma1 or below passes through optical fibers 13-15 and enters a photodetector 17, thereby actuating a driving part 18 and turning a switch 19 on. When one of the switches in the locked position and the other is in an open position, both filters R and B enter the optical path to prohibit the passage of the entire light and to turn the switch 19 off.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an optical switch and an optical switch circuit.

Among conventionally known optical switches, there is a type of optical switch that uses a shutter to block the path of light.

For example, when controlling an optical path using two or more optical switches, the optical path is made into two lines, and an optical switch circuit using an alternate type push button linked to a shutter is conventionally used in the electric circuit beyond the light receiving part. It requires a switch circuit similar to the one used in the present invention, and there are no suitable optical switches to replace it.Furthermore, it has the disadvantage of being complicated and expensive due to the large number of wiring lines, as it has only two lines.

Also, for example, there is a single optical path.

There is one shown in Figure 1. In the figure, 1.2 is an optical switch body inserted in the middle of the optical path formed by the optical fiber 3, and 4.5 is a push button operator provided on the top of the optical switch body 1.2, for example, a momentary switch. Use a type structure.

Shutters 6.7 for opening and closing the optical paths formed by the optical fibers are fixed to the lower portions of the pushbutton operators 4.5, respectively. Therefore, the optical switch main body 1.2 having the above structure blocks the optical path passing therethrough only while the push button operator 4.5 is pressed down. Mano, push button operator 4.5
If you release the button, it will instantly return to its old position,
The shutters 6 and 7 are also driven to open the optical path and allow light to pass through again, returning to the normal state. Here, light from a light source 8 provided at the input end of the optical fiber 3 is received by a light receiver 9 provided at the output side of the optical fiber 3, and the output is used to control a memory circuit 1o consisting of, for example, a flip-flop circuit. The optical pulse signals caused by the ON and OFF of the optical switch main body 1.2 are sequentially stored as ON, 0FF-, 0N-OFF, and the optical pulse signals are stored via the drive t$11 depending on the output of the storage circuit 1o. , CXif12l-ON, O
Make it FF.

In an optical switch using such a shutter with a conventional momentary structure, an extra memory element such as a flip-flop circuit is required, and the effect of making the optical path a single wire is lost. It is simple and has low applicability with only the OFF selection. Furthermore, since there is no distinction between the pulse signal FiON and FiON pulse signals emitted by the optical switch, for example, even if the memory circuit is reversed due to noise, it is impossible to detect the malfunction. It has drawbacks such as low reliability.

Jin's invention eliminates the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, provides a variety of functions with a small number of switches and a small number of lines, achieves this without becoming complicated, and is also highly reliable and prevents malfunctions. This is an optical switch that alternately inserts and removes a filter that passes a specific wavelength range into the optical path in response to the operation of an operator that operates the ON/OFF switch operation. The present invention provides an optical switch circuit including this optical switch.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Figure 2 shows an example of an optical switch circuit in which two optical switches are inserted into one line, and ON/OFF of the output side can be specified. Alternatively, it can be applied as a circuit that can be turned on and off from anywhere on the second floor.

In FIG. 2, a light source 16 is provided on the input side of the optical path formed by the optical fiber 13, 14, 15, and a light receiver 11 is provided at the output end of the optical fiber 13, 14, 15. The switch 19 is operated via the switch 19.

Optical switches 8W1°SW2 are inserted at arbitrary intermediate points of the optical paths formed by the optical fibers 13, 14, and 15, respectively. This original switch swl, 8W2
Both are provided with a filter part 20 and an alternate type push button operator 21 fixed to the upper part of the filter part 20. By moving the push button operator 21 up and down as shown in the figure, the filter part 20 can be adjusted. 20 move up and down in conjunction with each other. The filter portion 20 is configured by being divided into two types of filters R and B having different transmission bands of light wavelengths, for example, upper and lower in the figure. Also filter R,
8 shows the light transmittance T (%) on the vertical axis, as shown in Figure 183.
If the horizontal axis represents the wavelength of light, the filter 8 has the characteristics of a short wavelength transmission filter shown by the curve (b), and the filter R has the characteristics of a long wavelength transmission filter shown by the curve @. The cutoff wavelengths of these filters 8 and R are O-1+6-1, respectively, and when 9 (
Set the cutoff characteristic such that xl x ex2 and O
The difference between -1 and cp-2 is made sufficiently large so that the transmission characteristics of filters B and R do not overlap.

The operation of the optical switch constructed as described above will now be explained. Now, in Figure 112, the light switch S on the light source 16 side
When the push button operator 21 of W1 is pressed once, the filter portion 20 is lowered as shown in the figure, and the filter 8 is brought to a position where it passes through the optical path and is held there. On the other hand, assuming that the optical switch SW2 is not pressed down, the filter part 20F
i is located above the filter R at a position where it escapes from the optical path. Here, the position of the optical switch 8W1 as shown in the figure, that is, when the filter B is happy with the optical path, is the locked position.
If the illustrated position of the optical switch 8W2, that is, the position where the filter R does not combine the optical path, is called an open position, the combination of the positions of the optical switch SW1 and the optical switch 8W2, and the state of the optical switch circuit at that time are as follows. become.

(1) When both the optical switches SWI and sw2 are in the open position, the filter R enters the optical path by the optical switch 8W1, the filter R enters the optical path by the optical switch SW2, and all light with a wavelength of ufi or more is transmitted from the light source 16 to the optical fiber 13. .14.15 and enters the light receiver 17. The output thereof operates the sliding section 18 and turns on the switch 19, for example.

(2) When the optical switches 8Wl and sw2 are both in the locked position, the optical switch SWI enters the filter B into the optical path, and the optical switch SW2 enters the filter 8 into the optical path, allowing all light with wavelength C1 or less to pass through and all other light to pass through. Although not, turn on the switch 19 in the same way as in (1).

(3) When one of optical switch SWI and optical switch SW2 is in the locked position and the other is in the open position, filter 8
and filter R enter the optical path, so not only light with wavelength %1 or less, light with wavelength %cp-1 or more, but also all other wavelengths do not pass through the optical path, so no light enters the receiver 17 and the switch 19FiOFF.

To explain the above three cases using Table 1, in column I, filter 8 is in the optical path for both optical switches 8W1 and 8W2, and the output is ON, and in Otori-1I-, filter 8 or filter R is in the optical path and output. is OFF
, In column ■, filter R enters the optical path at two places and the output is ON.
It shows that.

Table 1 The above describes the case where two optical switches are inserted in series in one line, but as shown in Figure 4, filter 8 and filter R are inserted in the middle of the optical path made up of optical fibers 24 and 25. Part 20 of filters placed above and below
A light source 16 is placed on the input side of the optical path, and a half mirror 26 is placed on the output side of the optical path.

In the optical switch circuit, a filter B is inserted in front of the straight forward side of the half mirror 26 and a nine light receiving section 27 is provided, and a direct light receiving section 28 is provided on the reflection output side of the half mirror 26.
The light receiving unit 21 is turned off with the optical switch SW3 in the open position.
, is ON at the lock position, but the light receiving tN628Fi is always ON. Therefore, the output of the light receiving section 28 can constantly monitor whether the light source 16 is disconnected, the light source 16 is turned off due to a failure in the light source lighting circuit, or the optical path is disconnected, which is an unprecedented effect.

Furthermore, FIG. 5 shows a case where a filter R is inserted in front of the light receiving section 28 in FIG. 4, and the optical switch 8
When W3 is in the open position, the light receiving section 27 is OFF and the light receiving section 28 is OFF.
N, optical switch SW3 is in lock position and light receiving section 27 is ON
, the light receiving section 28 is turned off, and a circuit that cannot be realized without using Fi twice in an electric circuit can be realized with a single optical fiber.

As described above, according to the optical switch of the present invention, it is possible to select the wavelength (frequency) band of light, so a small number of one or two optical switches can have a high degree of freedom and have various functions. An optical switch circuit is obtained.

Also, when two optical switches are combined in series, AN
Not only D circuits and 08 circuits but also gQV circuits can be configured, increasing the utility value of the optical switch.

Furthermore, since the configuration is simple and the number of optical paths is only one, there are advantages such as no need for complicated wiring and no need for memory elements such as flip-flop circuits.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional optical switch circuit, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram of an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 3 is a graph showing wavelength-transmittance characteristics of an optical filter used in the optical switch of the present invention. , FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of still another embodiment. 2...Push button operator 27...Light receiving section 28...Light receiving section swl, SW2...Light switch B...・・・・・・－・・・Filter R・・・・・・
・・・・・・Filter Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 1 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] (11) An optical filter that allows only light in a specific wavelength range to pass is inserted into and removed from the optical path in accordance with the position of the operation of the operator for operating the ON/OFF switch operation. +2) A long wavelength transmission filter that allows only light in the long wavelength range to pass through, and a short filter that allows only light in the short wavelength range to pass, corresponding to the operating position of the operator that operates the ON/OFF switch operation. An optical switch characterized in that wavelength range transmission filters ← are alternately inserted into an optical path, and the cutoff wavelength of the long wavelength range transmission filter is larger than the cutoff wavelength of the smoke wavelength range transmission filter. (31 Corresponding to the operation position of the operator that operates the ON/OFF switch operation, there are a long wavelength range transmission filter that passes only light in the long wavelength range and a short wavelength range transmission filter that passes only the light in the short wavelength range. are inserted alternately into the optical path, and the cutoff wavelength of the long wavelength range transmission filter is larger than the cutoff wavelength of the short wavelength range transmission filter, and two or more optical switches are provided in the middle of the optical path. 141 An optical switch circuit characterized in that a long wavelength transmission filter that passes only light in a long wavelength range and a light in a short wavelength range corresponding to the operation position of an operator that operates a switch operation of ON and OFF are inserted. Short wavelength transmission filters are inserted alternately into the optical path, and optical switches in which the cutoff wavelength of the long wavelength transmission filter is larger than the cutoff wavelength of the short wavelength transmission filter are inserted in the optical path. The long wavelength band transmission filter or the short wavelength band transmission filter is inserted in the middle, and the long wavelength band transmission filter or the short wavelength band transmission filter is inserted into one surface of at least one light receiving unit among the one or more light receiving units provided at the output end of the optical path. An optical switch circuit characterized by: