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:
Mar. 22, 2005
Filed:
May. 22, 2002
Yoshiaki Uchida, Mohka, JP;
Fumio Nitanda, Fukaya, JP;
Tomoki Soutome, Ohyadai-machi, JP;
Shinji Furuichi, Mohka, JP;
Yoshiaki Uchida, Mohka, JP;
Fumio Nitanda, Fukaya, JP;
Tomoki Soutome, Ohyadai-machi, JP;
Shinji Furuichi, Mohka, JP;
Hitachi Metals, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
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×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.