Optical switch

US4208094A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Walter J. Tomlinson, III · Holmdel, US
• Richard E. Wagner · Corning, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Oct 2, 1978
• Grant date: Jun 17, 1980
• Expiry date: Oct 2, 1998

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B6/3558
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A rugged, compact optical switch is disclosed which comprises a quarter-period graded refractive index (GRIN) lens (1); a rotatable reflecting surface (2.1) disposed at a first surface (1.3) of the GRIN lens at an angle to the first surface; an optical source (8) mounted at the second surface (1.2) of the GRIN lens on the lens axis; and a plurality of optical receptors 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 and 12 mounted at the same second surface of the lens, all at the same distance from the lens axis but displaced at a plurality of angular positions about the lens axis. Rotation of the reflecting surface about the lens axis couples light between the optical source selectively to optical receptors at the appropriate angular orientation. The switch is reciprocal in that the common optical source may be an optical receptor and the various optical receptors, optical sources. Typically, the optical sources and receptors are optical fibers.