Optical switch

Abstract

An optical switch comprising: multiple input ports, each input port being for transporting an optical signal having at least one component frequency channel; multiple output ports, each output port being for transporting an optical signal having at least one component frequency channel; and a plurality of independently controllable optical groups, each optical group comprising: a first programmable deflection plane for deflecting beams incident on it to form a corresponding first deflected array of beams; a second programmable deflection plane for deflecting beams incident on it to form a corresponding second deflected array of beams; and a beam steering optical element group for transferring the first deflected array of beams between the first programmable deflection plane and the second programmable deflection plane, the beam steering optical element group of each of the plurality of independently controllable optical groups comprising a common remapping plane, wherein: the optical switch is configured to form a Fourier conjugate image for each of the independently controllable optical groups at a respective position on the common remapping plane, the Fourier conjugate image for each of the independently controllable optical groups being a Fourier conjugate image of the beams incident on the first programmable deflection plane of the independently controllable optical group; and the beam steering optical element group of each independently controllable optical group is capable of remapping the Fourier conjugate image for that independently controllable optical group such that the spatial positioning and/or orientation of the Fourier conjugate image for at least one of the independently controllable optical groups is changed differently to the Fourier conjugate image for at least one other of the independently controllable groups.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.