The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 07, 2004
Filed:
Feb. 25, 2003
Takanori Sugiyama, Watarai-gun, JP;
Yoshihiro Mihara, Matsuzaka, JP;
Kazuhiro Nobutoki, Matsuzaka, JP;
Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
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.