Hewlett-packard Company

Karl Salomaa

Long Yang

Gary Richard Trott

Kent W Carey

Karl Shubert

A switch for selectively coupling light from an input optical fiber to a selected one of a plurality of output optical fibers. The switch includes a first carriage having one end of the input optical fiber attached thereto and a second carriage having the output optical fibers attached thereto such that one end of each of the output optical fiber lies between first and second distances with respect to the end of the input optical fiber when the output optical fiber is aligned with the input optical fiber. A lens that is fixed with respect to the end of the input optical fiber images light leaving the input optical fiber onto a plane lying between the first and second distances from the end of the input optical fiber. In one embodiment of the present invention, an encoder is integrated into the first and second carriages. The encoder includes an encoding input optical fiber having one end attached to the first carriage, the encoding input optical fiber being a single mode optical fiber. Light leaving the encoder is received by a second single mode optical fiber when the carriages are in a specified relationship to one another. The second single mode optical fiber can either be a fiber on the second carriage or encoding input optical fiber itself. In the later case, the second carriage includes a reflector which images the light from the encoding input optical fiber back into the encoding input optical fiber.

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Jenner, CA, United States of America

Karl Salomaa