Hitachi Metals, Ltd.

Tomoki Soutome

Shinji Furuichi

Fumio Nitanda

Yoshiaki Uchida

An optical switching device comprising a plurality of mechanical optical switching structures having one to several movable optical fibers and one to several fixed optical fibers installed in a housing in which a refractive index matching oil is filled up and immerses the structures. Each of the structures has an electromagnetic actuator to reciprocate open ends of the movable optical fibers relatively to open ends of the fixed optical fibers and to connect/disconnect optical paths. Ends opposite to the open ends of the movable optical fibers and the fixed optical fibers are drawn out through ports located on the housing so that a certain number of optical fibers among the optical fibers drawn out serve as input optical fibers, while a certain number of optical fibers among the other optical fibers drawn out serve as output optical fibers, to constitute the optical switching device of m&#xd7;n type, in which m is the number of input paths and n is the number of output paths, providing a small-sized optical switching device having variable numbers of input/output paths.

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Ohyadaimachi, Japan

Tomoki Soutome