Fuji Electric Co., Ltd.

Hideo Kume

Hideyuki Tanaka

Yasukazu Sano

Kiyoshi Tanigawa

Keijirou Nakamura

An optical switch having two spherical or elliptical corner-reflecting surfaces provided in a light-conducting member, a shutter to open and close a light path between the corner-reflecting surfaces, and focusing lenses to focus the incident beam from an emitting optical fiber and to focus the emitting beam from the light-conducting member to a primary receiving optical fiber. Because almost all the beam transmitted through the light-conducting member is focused at one point in an air gap in which the shutter moves, the optical switch can transmit the beam with high efficiency without leakage to the outside, and a small stroke of the shutter is sufficient to completely transmit or stop the beam. In another similar optical switch having a reflecting surface at the tip of the shutter for inclining the beam, as well as having a secondary receiving optical fiber aligned with the path of the inclined beam, the beam is switched to be transmitted to the primary receiving optical fiber or to the secondary receiving optical fiber according to the position of the shutter. Thus, the ON/OFF state of the optical switch can be indicated, or a transfer-type optical switch can be obtained by using the secondary receiving optical fiber as well as the primary receiving optical fiber as switching circuits.

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Kawasaki, Japan

Hideo Kume