Optical fiber switch

A multi-circuit optical fiber switch, comprising:

• a fixed side ferrule assembly composed of a multiplicity of lined-up sleeves, a fixed side ferrule support member for two-dimensionally disposing the sleeves on an X-Y plane and supporting them and a multiplicity of fixed side optical fiber ferrules inserted into the lined-up sleeves and supported thereby;
• and
• a movable side ferrule assembly for supporting a movable side optical fiber ferrule and relatively two-dimensionally moving it on the X-Y plane with respect to the fixed side ferrule assembly as well as moving it in a direction (Z-direction) orthogonal to the X-Y plane by a Z-direction drive mechanism to thereby move the movable side optical fiber ferrule to an arbitrary sleeve of the fixed side ferrule assembly so that it can be attached thereto and detached therefrom and wherein:
• the fixed side ferrule support member is composed of a flat plate member, stepped holes are formed to the flat surface member in the numbers of M (M=1, 2 . . . ) and N (N=1, 2 . . . ) in the lateral (X) direction and the longitudinal (Y) direction of the surface of the flat plate member so that they are orthogonal in the lateral direction and the longitudinal direction and the fixed side optical fiber ferrules are detachably inserted into the lined-up sleeves disposed to the respective stepped holes and fixed therein;
• and the movable side ferrule assembly comprises:
• a coupling plate having a pair of X-axis slide blocks driven by a first stepping motor on a pair of slide rails disposed on the back surface of the fixed side ferrule mounting plate assembly along the lateral (X) direction in parallel therewith;
• X-, Y-direction slide table assembly composed on a Y-axis slide block driven by a second stepping motor on a slide rail mounted on the coupling plate at right angles in the longitudinal (Y) direction;
• and
• a Z-direction drive mechanism mounted on the Y-axis slide block and reciprocating in a Z-direction,
• whereby the multi-circuit optical fiber switch is arranged as 1×(M×N) orthogonally-disposed-type switch.