CN1314981C - Optical switch with three-end exchange - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a three-end exchangeable optical switch. The present invention is composed of a group of optical fiber coupling collimators, a driving sheet and a driver, wherein GRIN lenses or C lenses are combined and solidified with tail fiber couplers in the optical fiber coupling collimators, the driving sheet which has the function of complete optical reflection can generate micro-displacement, an angle is formed between the coupling plane surface of each GRIN lens or each C lens and the optical coupling plane surface of one corresponding tail fiber coupler in the collimators, and complete optical reflection films are plated on the driving sheet. The three-end exchangeable optical switch has the advantages of simple structure, low cost, high speed of optical exchange and stable switch performance. Compared with typical exchanging systems of MEMS integrated optical switches, the switch combination manner of the present invention is more flexible, and the dominance of the ratio of performance to price is more obvious; consequently, the fast development of complete optical exchangers is promoted so that the complete optical broadband Internet can be actually realized.

Description

Three-terminal switchable optical switch

technical field

The invention relates to a three-terminal switchable optical switch used in all-optical broadband communication network, all-optical network equipment and large-capacity database or video IP multi-service channel switch crossover.

Background technique

The three-terminal switchable optical switch device is one of the core devices widely used in the construction of all-optical network engineering. Because the all-optical switching technology is still in the experimental stage, the Internet still uses ordinary telecommunication switches to connect the physical layer of the network. However, judging from the fact that multimedia has been widely used on the Internet, and the network is in great need of continuous further expansion, the optical-electrical-optical switching method adopted by the current telecommunication switches is far behind the needs of network development. The "electronic bottleneck" that restricts and hinders the further expansion of network traffic. Although many published patent technologies have tried to solve this problem, such as U.S. Patent US09/489264, Japanese Patent WO00/14586, etc., have proposed or developed some optical switch switching methods, but up to now, no one has been found. A switchable optical switch that can solve the long-standing problems of stability, repeatability and maintainability in optical switching.

Contents of the invention

In order to solve the above problems, the object of the present invention is to provide a three-terminal switchable optical switch which can solve some common problems existing in optical switching and can solve M×N multi-channel switching matrix.

The technical solution of the present invention is: a three-terminal exchangeable optical switch, which includes a collimator, a driver plate and a driver, and is characterized in that it is coupled by a fiber optic coupled with a GRIN self-focusing lens and a pigtail coupler. The collimator consists of a micro-displacement driver plate with total light reflection function and a driver. The coupling plane of the GRIN self-focusing lens in the collimator and the optical coupling plane of the pigtail coupler form an angle of 4 to 8 degrees. , the collimator is a three-fiber collimator, which is composed of a GRIN self-focusing lens and three optical pigtails symmetrically coupled, and the drive plate is placed on one side of the optical parallel plane of the three-fiber collimator , and keep it in a vertical state with the optical axis, the driver chip is coated with a total optical reflection film, the driver chip is driven by the driver, a small displacement is generated to form a reflection matching angle, and the reflected beam is selected to be biased to the pigtail output on both sides.

The working mechanism of the present invention is to use the GRIN self-focusing lens material itself to have a refractive index gradient effect. When the GRIN lens and the pigtail coupler are combined and solidified together, between the optical coupling planes of the two devices, apart from the processed In addition to the existing 4-8 degree angle, there is also a matching angle generally less than 1 degree that can be generated by the small displacement of the driver plate. When the driver plate with reflection function is pre-set in a dual-fiber GRIN coupling collimator surface position and remain perpendicular to the optical axis. When the driver causes the driver plate to produce a slight displacement, this slight displacement produces a change in the matching angle, which can make the reflected beam return to the GRIN lens and the double-pigtail coupler, and make a choice of which pigtail to output. This is the three The working mechanism of end switchable optical switch.

The structure of the three-terminal switchable optical switch is simple, the manufacturing cost is reduced, the speed of optical switching is accelerated, and the switching performance is more stable. Compared with a typical MEMS integrated optical switch switching system, its switch combination method is more flexible, and its cost-effective advantage is also more obvious. This will help promote the rapid development of all-optical switches and realize the true all-optical broadband Internet.

Description of drawings

Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a three-terminal exchangeable optical switch composed of GRIN single/double fiber-coupled collimators;

Figure 2 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a three-terminal exchangeable optical switch composed of GRIN three-fiber collimators;

Fig. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of a piezoelectric driver;

Figure 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the principle of a three-terminal switchable switch composed of a GRIN three-fiber collimator;

Fig. 5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the magnetoelectric driver.

Detailed ways

A three-terminal exchangeable optical switch, which includes a collimator, a driver plate and a driver, is characterized in that it is a fiber-coupled collimator that is combined and solidified by a GRIN self-focusing lens and a pigtail coupler, and has a The micro-displacement driving plate with total light reflection function and a driver are composed. The coupling plane of the GRIN self-focusing lens in the collimator and the optical coupling plane of the pigtail coupler form an angle of 4 to 8 degrees. As shown in Fig. 2, the described collimator is a three-fiber collimator 10, which is composed of a GRIN self-focusing lens 4, and three optical pigtails 11, 12, 13 are symmetrically conjugated coupled, and the described driving chip 6 It is placed on one side of the optically parallel plane of the three-fiber collimator 10 and kept perpendicular to the optical axis, and the driving plate is coated with a total light reflection film. The drive plate 6 is driven by a driver to generate a small displacement to form a reflection matching angle, and the reflected beam is selected to be output to the pigtails on both sides thereof. As shown in FIG. 2 , when the driving plate 6 is driven by the driver to change the elevation reflection angle, the light beam can be output to the pigtails that are biased to both sides. Similarly, at the set position, slightly changing the light reflection angle can achieve the effect of optical switching. The function of the three-fiber collimator has stronger reflection characteristics than the collimator that simply uses two optical fiber parallel planes.

As shown in Figure 1, the three-terminal exchangeable optical switch can also be composed of a group of GRIN self-focusing lenses 4, a single fiber collimator 3 coupled and solidified by a single pigtail 2, and a double pigtail 8, 9 coupled and solidified on the A double-fiber collimator 7 together, a driving plate 6 with a total light reflection function and a micro-displacement, a driver and an external stainless steel sleeve 1 are composed of the coupling plane of the GRIN self-focusing lens 4 in the collimator and the The optical coupling plane of the single/double pigtail coupler is at an angle of 4-8 degrees, the driving plate 6 is coated with a total optical reflection film, and the stainless steel sleeve 1 between the single fiber collimator 3 and the double fiber collimator 7 Have a V-shaped groove 5 on it.

The three-terminal optical switch device of the present invention, according to the driving principle of the reflector, the driver structure can include piezoelectric drivers, magnetoelectric drivers and the like. There are also two kinds of piezoelectric drivers in the present invention, one is used in the three-terminal exchangeable optical switch formed by the collimator of GRIN single/double fiber coupling, as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 3, it consists of Piezoelectric medium 14, metal driving piece 6 and its front end with total reflection lens 15, stainless steel fixed sleeve 1 and its center has a three-dimensionally adjustable V-shaped chamfer groove 5 to form. The V-shaped groove is placed between the two optical fiber collimators 3 and 7. By adjusting the V-shaped lead angle groove, the range of micro-changes in the up and down or left and right of the driving piece can be determined. The piezoelectric medium cooperates with the reflective drive. After a certain voltage is applied, The driver tab snaps into a pre-calibrated reflective position. When the applied voltage disappears completely, the surface of the piezoelectric medium immediately returns to its original position, and its reflective drive plate no longer blocks the beam, so that the beam is directly optically coupled into the next-stage GRIN fiber collimator along the optical axis. The other is used in the three-terminal exchangeable optical switch composed of GRIN three-line collimator, as shown in Figure 4, by using a three-dimensional precision fine-tuning bracket, close to the surface position of the three-fiber collimator, and installing and debugging the reflection driver . The driver is composed of a piezoelectric medium and a stainless steel fixed sleeve. The piezoelectric medium cooperates with the reflective drive and is always perpendicular to the optical axis of the three-fiber collimator. Calibrate the micro-variation range of the pitch angle of the drive plate. After applying the voltage, the drive plate will quickly enter the pre-calibrated reflection position, and the beam will be reflected and output along one of the pigtails of the three-fiber collimator. When the direction of the driving voltage is changed, the driving plate returns to the initial position of the working point, and its reflected beam enters the other pigtail fiber in the three-fiber collimator for output, so that the purpose of exchanging the two reflected light paths can be achieved.

The magnetoelectric driver of the present invention is a miniature electromagnetic pendulum device, and the reflective film and the pendulum shaft of the driving piece are bonded together, and the driving piece is controlled to swing back and forth by two miniature electromagnetic coils. The reflective drive plate is parallel to the surface position of the three-fiber collimator. For precise positioning, the present invention designs a T-shaped chamfer groove, which can limit the micro-swing range of the drive plate. According to the current direction, frequency and amplitude of the micro-electromagnetic coil, the reflection position of the driving plate on the surface of the three-fiber collimator can be precisely adjusted, so that the reflection diaphragm can quickly enter the pre-calibrated reflection position, and the reflected beam passes through the three-fiber collimator. One pigtail output. When the direction of the driving voltage is changed, the driving piece returns to the original starting position immediately, and its reflected light beam enters another pigtail fiber output in the three-fiber collimator, as shown in Figure 5, the magnetoelectric driver consists of a pendulum shaft 16, The mirror driving piece 6 and the electromagnetic coil 17 are formed, and the pendulum shaft 16 is connected with the driving piece 6 and placed in the electromagnetic coil 17 .

Claims (3)

1, the commutative photoswitch of a kind of three ends, it comprises collimating apparatus, driving chip and driver, it is characterized in that, it is combined the collimating apparatus of the optical fiber coupling that is solidified togather with the tail optical fiber coupling mechanism by a GRIN GRIN Lens, one has all optical communication function, but the driving chip of microdisplacement and a driver constitute, the coupling plane of GRIN GRIN Lens becomes 4～8 degree angles in the collimating apparatus with the optical coupled plane of tail optical fiber coupling mechanism, described collimating apparatus is three fine collimating apparatuss (10), it is by a GRIN GRIN Lens (4), symmetry is gripped three optics tail optical fibers (11 of coupling altogether, 12,13) constitute, described driving chip (6) places optical parallel plane one side of three fine collimating apparatuss (10), and maintenance and optical axis are in vertical state, be coated with all optical communication film on the driving chip, described driving chip is by driver drives, produce micro-displacement and form the reflection matching angle, select the tail optical fiber output of its both sides of deflection by folded light beam.

2, the commutative photoswitch of a kind of three ends according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, described driver is a piezoelectric actuator, the completely reflecting mirror (15) that it is equipped with by piezoelectric dielectric (14), metal driving sheet (6) and its front end, stainless steel fixed sleeving (1) and center thereof have an adjustable V-arrangement lead angle groove (5) of three-dimensional and constitute, V-shaped groove places between two optical fiber collimators (3,7), by regulating V-arrangement lead angle groove, determine driving chip up and down or about the scope that changes of trace.

3, the commutative photoswitch of a kind of three ends according to claim 1, it is characterized in that, described driver is the magnetoelectricity driver, it is a miniature electromagnetic pendulum device, be that reflectance coating and driving chip balance staff are bonded together, driving chip is swung back and forth by the control of two micro electromagnetic coils, and described magnetoelectricity driver is made of the driving chip (6) and the solenoid (17) of balance staff (16), total reflective mirror, and balance staff (16) is connected with driving chip (6) and places among the solenoid (17).

Images