Nikon Corporation

Ntt Electronics Corporation

Masatoshi Kanaya

Toshiaki Tamamura

Katsuhiko Kurumada

Yoshihiko Suzuki

Keiichi Akagawa

Junji Suzuki

Makoto Satoh

Tohru Ishizuya

Shigendo Nishi

A movable plate is fastened to a substrate via flexure parts and can move upward and downward with respect to the substrate. The substrate serves as a fixed electrode. The movable plate has second electrode parts which generate an electrostatic force between these electrode parts and the substrate by virtue of a voltage that is applied across these electrode parts and the substrate and a current path which is disposed in a magnetic field, and which generates a Lorentz force when powered. A mirror advances into and withdraws from the optical path. When the movable plate moves from the lower position in which the electrostatic force is increased to the upper position, the control part controls the current so that the Lorentz force is generated in a downward orientation and gradually decreases while the movable plate moves from an intermediate position to the upper position.

Microactuator device and optical switching system using the same

An optical device is configured such that an insertion plate is held by a flat cantilever having electric wiring, and the flat magnet is placed in such a manner that the magnet faces a surface of the cantilever opposite to the other surface of the cantilever facing an optical waveguide, and that the current flowing through the electric wiring is controlled in this state so that the Lorentz force caused by the interaction between the current and the magnetic field displaces the cantilever to drive the insertion plate, and to insert or remove the insertion plate into or out of the slit provided in the optical waveguide to switch the optical path of signal light or to adjust the quantity of an optical beam.

Optical device

The light guide substratehas mirror receiving groovesand light guides. The light guides conduct light that is input into the input ports to selected output ports in accordance with the advance and retraction of the mirrorswith respect to the grooves. The actuator substratehas mirrorsand actuators which place the mirrorsin a state in which the mirrors are drawn in toward the substrate, or a state in which the mirrors protrude from the substrate. The light guide substrateand actuator substrateare aligned using alignment marks and joined with a spacerinterposed so that the mirrorsretract from the grooveswhen the mirrorsare drawn in toward the substrate, and so that the mirrorsadvance into the grooveswhen the mirrorsprotrude from the substrate. This alignment is performed in a state in which all of the mirrorsare drawn in toward the substrate

Light-beam switching/adjusting apparatus and manufacturing method thereof

A waveguide type optical device performs such monitoring as detection of a relative position of an insert plate to a groove. The waveguide type optical device comprises a groove disposed at an intersection position of a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide; an insert plate disposed to be insertable into the groove; means for applying a static magnetic field such that a vector product of a velocity vector (A) of the insert plate and its magnetic field vector (B) is nonzero; a cantilever that has electrical wiring including therein a wiring part lying in a direction perpendicular to both the velocity vector and the magnetic field vector and that supports the insert plate; and means for detecting a relative position of the insert plate to the groove by detecting a current induced in the electrical wiring.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Masatoshi Kanaya