Abstract:
PURPOSE:To miniaturize the exchange by an optical switch connected to a semiconductor laser operating bistably between an input optical waveguide and an output optical waveguide and a current drive circuit so as to set optionally the length of a frame exchanged by the exchange of a time division optical signal. CONSTITUTION:A switch 320 for write and a switch 330 for readout are provided between an input optical waveguide 310 inputting a time division optical signal 100 and an output optical wavguide 380 outputting a time division optical signal 190. Semiconductor lasers 340, 350, 360, 370 operating bistably are connected between an output side of the respective switch 320 and the input side of the switch 330 via an optical waveguide, and current drive circuits 345, 355, 365, 375 injecting respectively a bias current are connected to the lasers 340, 350, 360 and 370. Further, each of the switches 320, 330 is driven respectively by optical switch driving circuits 321, 331, the length of the frame exchanged by the exchange is set optionally and the exchange is miniaturized.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To perform switching with low crosstalk with 0-1 volt by coupling (n-1) optical waveguides with one optical waveguide mutually different coupling points. CONSTITUTION:One input optical waveguide 32 and four output optical waveguides 33-36 are installed on a dielectric or semiconductor substrate 1 and optical directional couplers 40-43 having mutual close light transmission directions are constituted successively between the optical waveguide 32 and four optical waveguides 33-36; and control electrodes 44-47 are arranged on those optical directional couplers. Then, only the control electrode of an optical directional coupler constituted between inpt and output optical waveguides to be connected mutually is held at 0V, and the other control electrode is applied with a voltage V'. When the amount of coupling is zero, low crosstalk is obtained easily without any influence of the asymmetry of the optical waveguides. Therefore, switching with low crosstalk is carried out between 0 and 1volt.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To provide a simple connecting method between a waveguide type optical element and incident and exit optical fibers for retaining plane of polarization by interposing single mode fibers of a specific length between the waveguide type optical element and the optical fibers for retaining plane of polarization. CONSTITUTION:Four incident single mode fibers 2 are connected on the end faces of the four incident light waveguides of a waveguide type optical switch 12, and four exit single mode fibers 10 are connected to the end faces of the four exit light waveguides. The respective fibers 2, 10 are linear, and the length Z thereof is maintained at Z
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To make a matrix optical switch operatable with a low voltage, by providing a control electrode near each optical directional coupler and applying a prescribed voltage of the control electrode of a prescribed optical directional coupler. CONSTITUTION:Optical waveguides 31 and 32 constituting the first optical waveguide group and optical waveguides 33 and 34 constituting the second optical waveguide group are formed on a dielectric or semiconductor substrate 1. Optical waveguides 31 and 32 constitute an optical directional coupler 41, and optical waveguides 33 and 34 constitute an optical coupler 44, and optical directional couplers 42 and 43 are constituted on both sides of optical directional couplers 41 and 44 by optical waveguides 32 and 33. Control electrodes are provided on respective optical directional couplers. Thus, switching is possible with a voltage value between 0 volt and 1 volt, and a low crosstalk is attained easily, and the optical switch is made operatable with a low voltage.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To obtain an optical switch which operates at a low voltage by installing a light reflector in an optical waveguide which connects optical switch elements together. CONSTITUTION:Optical waveguides 12-17 are formed on a substrate 10 of lithium niobate crystal (LiNbO3) by a Ti diffusion method, and the optical waveguides 12 and 13, 15 and 16, and 17 are put close at about several mum distances to form directional photocouplers; and control electrodes are installed on the optical waveguides constituting the photocouplers to form directional coupling type optical switch elements 21, 22, and 23. The optical waveguides 12 and 13 after running through the optical switch element 21 are bent at right angles by a reflector 24 formed by cutting a groove in the LiNBO3 substrate 10 and connected to the optical waveguides 18 and 19 respectively, and further bent at right angles by reflectors 25 and 26 and then connected to the optical waveguides 15 and 17. The reflectors 25 and 26 have flanks perpendicular to the substrate surface in the substrate 10 as well as the reflector 14 and are formed of thin grooves of several - tens of mum in width slanting to the optical guides 18 and 19 at 45 deg..
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To maintain the loss in each connection route constant by adjusting each switch of an optical switch array which connects any one of N-pieces of optical fiber cables to the other one optical fiber cable. CONSTITUTION:Optical fiber cables are selectively connected by using a waveguide type optical switch array consisting of the 1st- the 4th input optical waveguides 102, 104, 106, 108 which are connected at one end to the output ends of the 1st- the 4th input optical fiber cables 100, 103, 105, 107, an output optical waveguide 110 which contacts at one end with the input end of an output optical fiber cable 109 and is provided in proximity with the above-described 1st-4th input optical waveguides, the 1st- the 4th waveguide type optical switches 111, 112, 113 and 114 provided in the proximate parts of the respective input optical waveguides and the output optical waveguide, and the 1st- the 4th driving circuits 119, 120, 121, 122 of which the output terminals are connected respectively to control electrodes 115, 116, 117 and 118 of the respective switches.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To decrease inertion losses and to quicken the response speed by inserting an active waveguide path having P-N junction in an optical transmission line and amplifying propagated light with a forward bias normally to extract the optical signal as an electric signal at a reverse bias. CONSTITUTION:Laser light 1 for signal transmission is coupled with the active waveguide device 3 having the P-N junction via an optical system 2. In applying a forward bias across the P-N junction of the waveguide path 3, the laser light 1 is amplified and irradiated from the waveguide path 3 ad irradiated light 4. On the other hand, in applying a reverse bias across the waveguide path 3, the laser light 1 is absorbed while being travelled through the active waveguide path 3 and extracted externally as a light current. Thus, the light is amplified and irradiated to the next stage or the light is extracted as the electric signal by changing over the bias state of the waveguide path 3 in this way.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To obtain an information signal as an electric signal in a branch to be connected, by reverse-biasing only an active waveguide corresponding to an output branch to be connected of an lX(m) optical switch, and forward-biasing the remaining waveguides. CONSTITUTION:Active waveguides (20a, 20c) (20b, 20d) corresponding to the number of output branches are placed in front of two input optical transmission lines 3a, 3b, respectively. In case each active waveguide is all biased in the forward direction, an optical signal outputted from the input light transmission line is amplified by each active waveguide and transmitted as a light. The active waveguide 20c, 20b are connected to reverse-biasing circuits 25a, 25b provided with a photoelectric detecting system, and when other active waveguides 20a, 20d are biased in the forward direction, the optical signal from the input light transmission line 3a is amplified by the active waveguide 20a, and made incident to the active waveguide 20c, but is absorbed in its waveguide, and a photocurrent is obtained in an output branch 8b by the reverse-biasing circuit 25b.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To perform polarization compensation which is stable to the polarization state of single-mode fiber projection light by splitting incident light into two orthogonal linear polarized components, and rotating only one component and then multiplexing both components after passing them through optical paths differing in length. CONSTITUTION:A light wave projected from a single-mode fiber 1 is split into two mutually orthogonal linear polarized components by birefringent crystal 3, and they are coupled with polarization maintaining fibers 4 and 5 respectively. The polarization maintaining fibers 4 and 5 has some difference in fiber length so that two light waves do not interfere with each other when multiplexed by a light guide type Y-shaped multiplexer 6 while only one linear polarized component is rotated by 90 deg.. In this case, axes of polarization are so adjusted that both components propagating in the polarization maintaining fibers 4 and 5 are multiplexed efficiently on the incidence light guide 7 of the light guide type Y- shaped multiplexer 6.
Abstract:
PURPOSE:To eliminate the variance with the losses in connection routes by providing plural loss provision means between an optical input terminal group and the plural input terminals of an optical switch array and between an optical output terminal group and the plural output terminals of the optical switch array. CONSTITUTION:There are thin metallic film layers 200-205 of a prescribed length on input-output waveguides and directional coupling type optical switches 306-308, 318-320 as optical loss provision means provided in order to solve the difficulty in the loss distribution in the stage of designing optical fiber network as the insertion losses vary with the routes to be selectively connected on account of difficulty in maintaining the constant connection losses Lci, L'cj between an optical fiber cable and an optical waveguide. When the light signal propagating in the optical waveguide is of a TM mode wave, the loss generated by the thin metallic film is large and therefore the large variance with the loss is compensated.