Optical switch, method of manufacturing same, and optical communication equipment using same

A method of fabricating an optical switch, comprising the steps of:

• forming a separation layer on a silica glass substrate;
• forming a silica glass buffer layer on said silica glass substrate so as to cover said separation layer;
• forming a silica glass waveguide core on said silica glass buffer layer;
• forming a silica glass clad layer on said silica glass buffer layer so as to cover said silica glass waveguide core;
• forming external configurations of cantilever beams;
• and
• removing said underlying separation layer of said cantilever beams so as to obtain a movable construction of said cantilever beams.

An optical communication equipment comprising:

• an optical signal input terminal, to which an optical video signal is input;
• and
• an optical switch for switching an output of said optical video signal input from said optical signal input terminal, said optical switching including:
• a silica glass substrate;
• a seperation layer formed on said substrate;
• a plurality of cantilever beams formed in parallel to one another on said seperation layer and floating above said silica glass substrate, and connected at their tip ends to a connection member, said cantilever beams being equally bendable in opposite directions;
• a plurality of input silica glass optical waveguide cores, respective ones of said input silica glass optical waveguide cores being formed on respective ones of said cantilever beams so that each of said cantilever beams has a respective one of said input optical waveguide cores formed thereon;
• a plurality of output optical waveguide cores fixed in opposition to said input silica glass optical waveguide cores;
• and
• switch drive means for bending said cantilever beams from a position in one bent direction to a position in an opposite bent direction when an optical path switching operation is performed.

A method of manufacturing an optical path of an input optical signal, comprising the steps of:

• forming a separation layer on a silica glass substrate;
• forming on said separation layer a plurality of cantilever beams connected by a connection member, and disposing first optical waveguides on said cantilever beams;
• forming a plurality of second optical waveguides disposed in opposition to said first optical waveguides;
• and
• forming a switch drive for shifting optical paths of said first optical waveguides.