JPS63244012A - Optical switch - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten the optical path length from light input terminals to output terminals by disposing the output terminals to the ends of radial grooves and constructing a switch in such a manner that input light and the output terminals can be connected by sliding parallelogram prisms put into the grooves in the grooves. CONSTITUTION:The radial grooves 2 are provided on a disk-shaped base plate 1 and the parallelogram prisms 4 mounted on a mounting plate 6 are put into the grooves 2. The input light 11 is collimated by a lens to a collimated beam of light having a specified beam width which is entered perpendicularly to the plate 1 by aligning the optical axis thereof to the center of the groove 2. Only the parallelogram prism 4 corresponding to the output terminal 3 from which output light 12 is taken out is thereby moved in the central direction of the radial groove 2 and, therefore, the specified optical path length of the input light 11 to the respective output terminals 3 is maintained regardless of the number of the output terminals and the shortest distance of the optical path length is obtd.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (a) Technical Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical switching device in which the optical path length does not change even when input and output are switched.

(b) Prior Art and Problems In optical communications, various optical switching devices have been developed to switch the optical path of an optical transmission line.

There are two types of optical switching means: non-mechanical methods that use electric/magneto-optical elements or acoustic optical elements, and mechanical methods that move the position of optical elements such as prism optical fibers. Non-mechanical means are still insufficient in terms of binding and polarization characteristics, and there are many unresolved issues, so optical switching devices based on mechanical means are currently widely used.

Conventional techniques using mechanical means include, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 55
-25023 publication, etc.

However, as the number of output terminals increases in the conventional optical switching device, the following problems arise.

A. The optical path length from the optical input terminal to the output terminal becomes longer.

B) Insertion loss is large as an optical switch.

C. Differences in insertion loss occur because the optical path lengths differ between each output terminal.

(c) Purpose of the Invention The purpose of the present invention is to provide an optical switching device that can shorten the optical path length from an optical input terminal to an output terminal and has no difference in optical path length from the input terminal to each output terminal. .

(d) Embodiment of the invention First, a configuration diagram of an embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG.
A sectional view of FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2.

In FIG. 1, 1 is a substrate, 2 is a groove, 3 is an output terminal, 4 is a parallelogram prism, 5 is a drive mechanism, and 8 is a mounting plate.

FIG. 1 shows a configuration example in which the number of output terminals is eight, and one set of them will be explained below.

A radial groove 2 is provided in a disk-shaped substrate 1, and a parallelogram prism 4 attached to a mounting plate 6 is inserted into the groove 2.

As shown in FIG. 2, the input light 11 is converted into parallel light with a constant beam width by a lens, the optical axis is aligned with the center of the groove 2, and the input light 11 enters the substrate 1 perpendicularly.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which the output light 12 is taken out from the output terminal 3.

1 and 2 show the state in which the mounting plate 6 is slid in the direction of the center point of the board 1 by the drive mechanism 5, and the human-powered light 11 follows the optical path shown in FIG. Output light 12
is extracted as.

When inputting the input light 11 to the other output terminal shown in FIG.
the parallelogram prism on the other output terminal is slid to the position of the input light 11 by the drive mechanism.

Note that in conventional optical switching devices, the number of output terminals is limited by the number of optical path lengths and is limited to 5 to 6, but according to the present invention, even one board 1 can have 12 or more output terminals. can be placed.

Furthermore, if a plurality of boards 1 are used, several tens of terminals can be connected.

(e) Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, parallelogram prisms are provided radially with respect to the optical axis of the input light 11, and only the parallelogram prisms corresponding to the output terminals from which the output light 12 is taken out are connected to the radial groove 2.
Since the optical path length of the input light 11 to each output terminal becomes constant regardless of the number of output terminals, the optical path length can be made the shortest distance.

Moreover, since each output terminal is arranged concentrically with respect to the input optical axis, it is possible to eliminate the difference in insertion loss due to the difference in optical path length between each output.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment according to the present invention, and FIG.
FIG. 1...Substrate, 2...Groove, 3...
・Output terminal, 4... Parallelogram prism, 5.
...Drive mechanism, θ...Mounting plate, 11...
...Input light, 12...Output light. Agent Patent Attorney Kin Tsukasa Omata Figure 1 Prism Figure 2

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Provide radial grooves on the substrate, input light perpendicularly to the intersections of the grooves, arrange output terminals at the ends of the grooves, put parallelogram prisms in each of the grooves, and the parallelogram prisms one of the parallelogram prisms is slid in the groove to connect the input light and the output terminal; The parallelogram prism is separated from the input light, and the input light is extracted from one of the output terminals through one of the parallelogram prisms.