Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd.

Yoshihiro Mihara

Takanori Sugiyama

Kazuhiro Nobutoki

Tsutomu Shimomura

Mitsuo Ichiya

Sachiko Mugiuda

Yuichi Niimura

An optical switch comprises a prism for changing the direction of travel of incident light to be directed toward a further optical fiber; a switching mirror placed to be insertable and removable into and from between a lens block and the prism; and an actuator for driving the mirror, in which incident and emitting optical fibers are placed in the same facing, i.e. on one surface side, of the device body. This structure makes it possible for components to be used in common and integrated, and for the coupling surfaces between the lens block and the optical fibers to be gathered together in one place, thereby enabling cost reduction and size reduction.

Optical switch

An optical switch switches the light path between collimate lenses optically coupled to the ends of corresponding optical fibers by the advancing and retracting movements of a prism. The prism comprises an electromagnetic driver having an armature arranged to hold the prism, a coil block for driving the movement of the armature by use of magnetic actions and a leaf spring. The leaf spring mainly includes four parallelly extending spring strips fixedly joined at one end to a body and at another end to the armature to thus spatially hold the armature and the prism for linear movement. The electromagnetic driver and the prism are disposed next to each other along the moving direction of the armature. The armature and the prism can be linearly moved at a right angle to the light path between the lenses when the optical switch is in action. This allows the prism to be linearly moved, and the device can be minimized in overall size.

Growing community of inventors

Matsusaka, Japan

Yoshihiro Mihara