Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Mitsuhiro Makihara

Fusao Shimokawa

Makoto Sato

Hiroyoshi Togo

Tomomi Sakata

Masao Kawachi

Akira Nagayama

Shingo Uchiyama

Kunihiko Sasakura

Mitsuo Usui

Nobuhiro Shimoyama

Tsuneo Kanai

Shigefumi Hosokawa

Yasuhide Nishida

Shigeru Umemura

Syuichirou Inagaki

Hirobumi Kimura

A MEMS device includes a mirror substrate (), an electrode substrate () arranged so as to face the mirror substrate (), a mirror () serving as a movable member rotatably supported in an opening portion of the mirror substrate () via support members, a driving electrode () arranged on an insulating film () on a surface of the electrode substrate () facing the mirror substrate () so as to face the mirror () across a gap and drive the mirror (), and a lower electrode () made of a metal or a semiconductor and formed under the insulating film () exposed to the gap so as to be in contact with the insulating film ().

MEMS device and method of manufacturing the same

An optical switch for switching a light path between two optical waveguides is provided. The switch has a slit formed diagonally cutting across the crossing point of crossing optical waveguides and a substance in the slit has a function of transmitting or reflecting an optical signal is selectively held in the slit. The slit is narrower than cores of the optical waveguides, and has a center line formed on a bisection of an interior angle between optical axes of the crossing optical waveguides. Thus, the substance in the slit serves to make optical intensity reflected to each of the optical waveguides uniform. Further, a crossing optical waveguide consists of a reflecting structure having its interior filled with air during reflection and the intersecting angle between the first group of optical waveguides is between 0 to 90 degrees and preferably substantially between 73 and 74 degrees.

Optical switch

An optical switch of the present invention has a plurality of elements arranged in each of a row and a column direction thereof, where the slits of each element are located at corresponding crossing point between an optical wave guide extending to a row direction and a column direction. A heating element, provided near each of the slits, with a predetermined resistance value, and liquid with predetermined optical characteristic which moves within the slit. The liquid is moved to switch the optical paths at the crossing point between the optical wave-guides. A first electric wirings connecting the heating element of elements in the same row direction in condition that ratio of the resistance value of each heating element to the predetermine resistance value has a predetermined value or smaller, and a second electric wiring connecting the heating element of the element in the same column direction together in condition that a ratio of the resistance value of each heating element to the predetermine resistance value has a predetermined value or smaller.

An optical switch includes a substrate having therein optical waveguides made of silicon and a silicon layer deposited on its top surface. A space is formed in the crossing portion of the optical waveguides which is covered with a lid, preferably made of low alkali borosilicate glass, and which is bonded to the silicon layer by anodic bonding. Preferably, a groove is formed in a surface of the optical waveguide substrate or a bonding surface of the lid. The groove, after the lid has been bonded, makes a passage which communicates between the space and an outside. The passage is a pouring slit for pouring an index-matching liquid and is connected to the space which acts as a driving slit in which the index-matching liquid moves. In one embodiment, the width of the pouring slit is smaller than that of the driving slit. The optical switch can be manufactured by providing an optical waveguide substrate and a lid substrate, one of which is formed with a groove in its surface on which the two substrates are bonded. The optical waveguide substrate and the lid substrate are bonded together by anodic bonding to make a passage which communicates between the space formed in a crossing portion of the optical waveguides and an outside. The regulation of the volume of the index-matching liquid is time-, temperature-, or pressure-based regulation.

Optical switch and method for assembling the same

In an optical MDF (main distributing frame) for interconnecting external subscriber optical lines (122) with office optical lines (131) through jumpering operation, a matrix waveguide (128, 129, 130) having a plurality of crosspoints coupled with external lines and office lines is used. The matrix waveguide has a groove (235 in FIG. 4A) at each crosspoint so that said crosspoint is switched ON or OFF depending upon whether said groove is filled with matching oil or not, so that one of the external lines is connected to the selected office line. Said matching oil has the same refractive index as that of waveguides. Each crosspoint groove is coupled with a respective oil pool (236), which supplies matching oil which has essentially the same refractive index as that of a waveguide to said groove. Switching at a crosspoint is carried out in a manner that a light signal in a waveguide goes straight through the crosspoint when a groove is filled with matching oil, and the light signal changes its direction at the crosspoint through total internal reflection when the groove is empty. A jumpering operation to connect or disconnect a crosspoint is carried out by a robot (133), which fills or pulls out matching oil in the oil pool at the designated coordinates. Each external line is branched by using an optical directional coupler (237) for test purposes, and one of the branch lines subject to test is selected by using a similar 1.times.N type matrix waveguide. (FIG. 4A)

Automated optical main distributing frame system

Growing community of inventors

Higashiyamato, Japan

Mitsuhiro Makihara