Optical switch and method for aligning optical switch components
First Claim
1. An optical switch comprising:
- an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling input optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a first switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the input optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the first substrate provided at an angle α
1 relative to the surface of the first substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an input optical fiber back into the input optical fiber, and a second switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the second substrate provided at an angle α
2 relative to the surface of the second substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an output optical fiber back into the output optical fiber.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An optical switch having a fiber/lens array and a switching substrate may be properly aligned using one or more static mirrors or photodetectors provided on the switching substrate. The static mirrors may be designed to reflect incident light back into an input fiber, where the back reflected light may be detected, or to a detector provided at a predetermined position. Accordingly, the position of the switching substrate and/or fiber/lens array may be adjusted until reflected light having predetermined power is detected. In another embodiment, the position of the switching substrate and/or fiber/lens array may be adjusted until predetermined power is detected by the photodetectors provided on the switching substrate.
45 Citations
33 Claims
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1. An optical switch comprising:
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an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling input optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a first switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the input optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the first substrate provided at an angle α
1 relative to the surface of the first substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an input optical fiber back into the input optical fiber, and a second switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the second substrate provided at an angle α
2 relative to the surface of the second substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an output optical fiber back into the output optical fiber.- View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. An optical switch comprising:
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an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling input optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a first switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the input optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the first substrate provided at an angle α
1 relative to the surface of the first substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an input optical fiber back into the input optical fiber, and a second switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the second substrate provided at an angle α
2 relative to the surface of the second substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an output optical fiber back into the output optical fiber; and
a plurality of photodetectors coupled to a first group of the optical input fibers, said photodetectors for detecting the power of the optical signal back-reflected into the first group of optical input fibers by said static alignment micro-mirrors of the first switching substrate. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5)
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6. An optical switch comprising:
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an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling input optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a first switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the input optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the first substrate provided at an angle α
1 relative to the surface of the first substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an input optical fiber back into the input optical fiber, and a second switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the second substrate provided at an angle α
2 relative to the surface of the second substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an output optical fiber back into the output optical fiber; and
a plurality of photodetectors coupled to a first group of the optical output fibers, said photodetectors for detecting the power of light back-reflected into the first group of optical output fibers by the static alignment micro-mirrors of the second switching substrate.
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7. An optical switch comprising:
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an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling input optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the second substrate provided at an angle α
relative to the surface of the second substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an output optical fiber back into the output optical fiber.- View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. An optical switch comprising:
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an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling input optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one static alignment micro-mirror on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, said static alignment micro-mirror of the second substrate provided at an angle α
relative to the surface of the second substrate so as to reflect the optical signal carried by an output optical fiber back into the output optical fiber; and
a plurality of photodetectors coupled to a first group of the optical output fibers, said photodetectors for detecting the power of light back-reflected into the first group of optical output fibers by said static alignment micro-mirrors of the first switching substrate. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11)
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12. A combination for an optical switch comprising:
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an optical array comprising optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the optical fibers; and
a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and static alignment micro-mirrors on a surface thereof facing the optical array, wherein each of said static alignment micro-mirrors is provided at an angle α
relative to the surface of the substrate so as to reflect an optical signal carried by an optical fiber back into the input optical fiber and each of said movable micro-mirrors for reflecting optical signals carried by the optical fibers at a selectable angle away from the optical array.- View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A combination for an optical switch comprising:
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an optical array comprising optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the optical fibers; and
a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and static alignment micro-mirrors on a surface thereof facing the optical array, wherein each of said static alignment micro-mirrors is provided at an angle α
relative to the surface of the substrate so as to reflect an optical signal carried by an optical fiber back into the input optical fiber and each of said movable micro-mirrors for reflecting optical signals carried by the optical fibers at a selectable angle away from the optical array; and
a plurality of photodetectors coupled to a first group of the optical fibers, said photodetectors for detecting the power of light back-reflected into the first group of optical fibers by said static alignment micro-mirrors of the first switching substrate. - View Dependent Claims (19)
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20. A method of aligning components of an optical switch comprising an optical array including optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the optical fibers and a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and static alignment micro-mirrors on a surface thereof facing the optical array, each said static alignment micro-mirror provided at an angle α
- relative to the surface of the substrate, the method comprising;
detecting the power of back-reflected optical signals in the plurality of optical fibers; and
moving at least one of the optical array and the switching substrate until the detected power in the plurality of optical fibers reaches a predetermined value.
- relative to the surface of the substrate, the method comprising;
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21. An optical switch comprising:
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an input optical array comprising input optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the input optical fibers;
an output optical array comprising output optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the output optical fibers;
an optical switching mechanism for selectively coupling optical signals from the input optical fibers to selected output optical fibers, said optical switching mechanism including a first switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least photodetector on a surface thereof facing the input optical array, wherein said photodetector is positioned to detect the optical signals carried by an input optical fiber, and a second switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and at least one photodetector on a surface thereof facing the output optical array, the photodetector positioned to detect the optical signals carried by an output optical fiber. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. A combination for an optical switch comprising:
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an optical array comprising optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the optical fibers; and
a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and a plurality of photodetectors on a surface thereof facing the optical array, the micro-mirrors and the photodetectors provided in an array so that each micro-mirror and photodetector corresponds to a micro-lens of the optical array. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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32. A method of aligning components of an optical switch comprising an optical array including optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the optical fibers and a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and a plurality of photodetectors arranged in an array so that each micro-mirror and each photodetector corresponds to a micro-lens of the optical array, the method comprising:
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transmitting light of a predetermined wavelength in the optical fibers optically aligned with the micro-lenses corresponding to the plurality of photodetectors;
detecting the power of optical signals detected by said photodetectors; and
moving at least one of the optical array and the switching substrate until the detected power reaches a predetermined value.
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33. A method of aligning components of an optical switch comprising an optical array including optical fibers and micro-lenses optically aligned with the optical fibers and a switching substrate having a plurality of movable micro-mirrors and static alignment micro-mirrors on a surface thereof facing the optical array, each said static alignment micro-mirror provided at an angle α
- relative to the surface of the substrate, the method comprising;
positioning at least one optical detector at a desired position relative to one of the optical array and the switching substrate;
directing optical signals from the optical fibers to the static alignment micro-mirrors;
detecting optical signals reflected by the static alignment micro-mirrors using the detector; and
moving the other of the optical array and the switching substrate until the detected power reaches a predetermined value.
- relative to the surface of the substrate, the method comprising;
Specification