Switching arrangement for a radiation guide

Abstract

The radiation guide switching arrangement having at least one radiation guide switch is produced from a sandwich wafer. The sandwich wafer has a substrate, a covering layer and an electrically insulating intermediate layer. Each radiation guide switch has a moveable switching part (7) as well as at least two radiation guide ends (6), which come to rest in a plane and are arranged closely adjacent to one another such that radiation which emerges from one radiation guide end (6) can be blocked on its optical path to another guide end (6), or can be reflected into this other guide end, by means of the switching part (7). The intermediate space (5) which accommodates the switching part (7) between the guide ends (6) is filled with an index matching liquid (87) which has a predetermined refractive index, and the radiation-carrying core (8) of each radiation guide (49) is designed to taper such that radiation collimation (14) can be achieved by interaction with the refractive index of the index matching liquid (87) and the free core profile (13) in the space which is filled with liquid. The switching part (7) may be mirrored on both sides, in which case one particular feature is aimed at the mirror surfaces (74a, 74b) which are produced in an etching process always running at right angles to a plane in which radiation guide ends (6) and their optical axes lie. This verticality is achieved by the use of sacrificial webs in the etching process. A radiation guide switch produced in such a way has low radiation losses with a good switching response. In addition, a number of switches may be combined to form a matrix-like switch arrangement. An attenuating unit, or a matrix-like attenuating unit, may be designed analogously to the radiation guide switches.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.