At&t Bell Laboratories

American Telephone & Telegraph Co., At&t Bell Laboratories

Richard T Kraetsch

Richard Joseph Pimpinella

King Lien Tai

Yinon Degani

Leonard W Schaper

Mindaugas Fernand Dautartas

Robert M Kimball

Robert M Lien

A precisely aligned optical fiber switch assembly. A base member has a vee groove for supporting a fixed optical fiber and a second optical fiber in optical alignment with the fixed fiber. The groove contains sections of different dimensions that receive and align sheathed portions of the fibers and groove sections that receive and align unsheathed portions of the fibers. First aligning means on the base member longitudinally position the fixed and second fibers in the groove. Covering means mate with the base member for covering at least part of the sheathed portions of the fibers. Aligning means position the covering means precisely with respect to the base member.

Optical fiber switch

A fiber optical end connector is disclosed, comprising a grooved base member having mounted thereupon a grooved silicon block, and means for holding optical fibers in the grooves on the base member and on the silicon block.

Optical fiber connector

An m-input/n-output (e.g., 2.times.2) optical fiber switch is disclosed which alters the location of the fibers by the application of an external force. Illustratively, the switch uses a housing with a diamond-shaped opening extending therethrough, with pairs of optical fibers positioned in orthogonally located V-grooves. Upon the application of an external force, the fibers are moved into the remaining, vacant V-grooves formed by the diamond-shaped opening. In a preferred embodiment, a (2.times.2) switch is magnetically activated.

Movable fiber optical switch

Growing community of inventors

Berkeley Heights, NJ, United States of America

Richard T Kraetsch