Optical switch
AssigneeHon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.
InventorsShang-Chin Liao, Kun-Tsan Wu
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An optical switch (80) includes a base (11), two input ports (20, 40), two output ports (30, 50), a reflector assembly (60), a driving means (70) and a cover (12). The reflector assembly has a first reflector (61) with two reflecting surfaces (611, 612) and a second reflector (62) with two reflecting surfaces (621, 622). The light beams from the input ports selectively propagate to the output ports by controlling the rotation angle (90° or N×90°; N: natural number) of the reflector assembly to be in a first position or a second position and therefore to switch different reflecting surface of the first reflector and the second reflector into the path of the light beams.
Claims16
An optical switch for switching light beams coming from a first and a second input ports between a first and a second output ports, comprising:
- a base;
- a first input port, a second input port, a first output port and a second output port all supported by the base;
- and
- a reflector assembly mounted to the base, the reflector assembly comprising a first reflector and a second reflector and be rotatable with respect to the base between a first position and a second position;
- wherein, in the first position, the light beams propagate from the first input port to the first output port after being reflected by the first reflector and the light beams propagate from the second input port to the second output port after being reflected by the second reflector, and wherein, in the second position, the light beams propagate from the first input port to the second output port after being reflected by the first reflector and the light beams from the second input port propagate to the first output port after being reflected by the second reflector.
An optical switch assembly comprising:
- first input and output ports angled to each other on one side of a reflector assembly;
- second input and output ports angled to each other on the other side of said reflector assembly;
- and
- said reflector assembly defining first and second sets of reflection surfaces;
- wherein
- when said first set of reflection surfaces is provided, light from the first input port leaves via said first output port and light from the second input port leaves via said second output port while when said second set of reflection surfaces is provided, light from the first input port leaves via the second output port and light from the second input port leaves via the first input port under a condition that for the same light source, the first set of reflection surfaces interrupts a corresponding light path in an earlier stage than said second set of reflection surfaces.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.