JP2826579B2 - Light switch - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a mechanical optical switch that directly moves an optical fiber.

"Problems to be solved by conventional technology and invention" In a loop-type data transmission system using an optical fiber, when a failure such as a power failure occurs in a terminal station, or when a A transmission path switch is indispensable for securing the transmission path. Conventionally, such a switch has been used in which light emitted from an optical fiber is converted into a parallel light beam by an optical lens, and an optical path is switched by a movable mirror or a movable prism provided on the optical path of the parallel light beam. However, in such an example, there are many precision optical components such as an optical lens and a movable mirror, so that they are large and expensive, and there are disadvantages that a large number of man-hours are required for assembly.

Therefore, in order to improve the above-mentioned drawback, an optical switch has been devised in which the fibers are directly opposed to each other without using an optical component and the switching is performed by moving the fiber end. For example, PGHale and R. Kompfner's Electronics
There is an optical switch shown in letter, VOL.12, No.15. That is, as shown in FIG. 11, a movable fiber 3 whose base is reinforced by a sleeve 2 is fixed with an adhesive 4 inside a tube 1 having a square cross-section hole, and the fixed fiber is opposed to the movable fiber 3. 5 and 6 are fixed with an adhesive 4. Nickel sleeve 7 for movable fiber 3
Is fixed, which is driven by the electromagnet 8,
Switch the connection status between fibers. The fixed fibers 5 and 6 are fixed at the diagonal corners of the square cross-section hole, and the movable fiber 3 is positioned by being pressed into each corner of the hole.

However, the optical switch having the configuration shown in FIG. 11 is difficult to manufacture because the optical fiber is sealed with an adhesive, and it is also difficult to bring together the end faces of the optical fibers, that is, to obtain the precision of the gap size and the optical path alignment. Was. Further, as a type of optical path switching, only a two-terminal (only ON-OFF) or three-terminal switch can be configured, and for example, a 2 × 2 bypass switch cannot be configured.

The present invention has been made in view of such conventional drawbacks, and is small, inexpensive, has a simple structure, can be easily manufactured, and has a high degree of accuracy in joining optical fiber end faces. The present invention also provides an optical switch capable of forming a 2 × 2 bypass switch or the like.

"Means for Solving the Problems" (1) An optical switch according to the present invention has a plate-like base, a plate-like mounting base mounted on the base, and a height dimension equal to that of the mounting base. A plate-like lower stopper mounted on the base in parallel with the mounting base, one end of the plate body is slightly bent upward, and one end is mounted on the mounting base, and the plate body is A leaf spring, which is disposed at a right angle to the longitudinal direction of the mounting base and whose free end of the plate body is displaced in a direction away from the upper surface of the lower stopper by the bending, has a thickness equal to that of the leaf spring, and A fixing plate arranged side by side with the leaf spring, and attached to the mounting base and the lower stopper at a right angle to the longitudinal direction thereof; and a longitudinal end of the fixing plate facing the leaf spring side. At right angles to the direction, the top and bottom of each fixed plate First and second optical fibers having the same outer diameter, which are attached to face each other; and the outer diameters of the first and second optical fibers are equal to each other, and the end faces of the first and second optical fibers are respectively equal to the end faces of the first and second optical fibers. In order to be able to approach and oppose each other, at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the leaf spring, the first and second upper and lower faces of the leaf spring are attached to face each other.
A fourth optical fiber, an upper stopper that abuts on an upper end of the free end of the leaf spring, and makes an end face of the fourth optical fiber close to an end face of the first optical fiber; and a free end of the leaf spring is on the lower side. The leaf spring is elastically displaced so as to abut against the stopper.
And a leaf spring driving section for causing the end face of the fourth optical fiber to approach and face the end face of the first and second optical fibers, respectively.

(2) In the above item (1), it is preferable that the leaf spring and the fixing plate are connected by a connecting portion on the mounting base side and are integrally formed.

(3) In the above item (2), after the end of the leaf spring integrated with the fixing plate is extended by a predetermined distance to the opposite side to the connecting portion on the mounting base, the leaf spring is further In parallel with the fixing plate, the L-shaped extension is formed by extending to substantially the same length as the fixing plate, and the extended end and the end of the fixing plate are connected by a connecting portion on the lower stopper. Optical switches that are integrally connected, thereby forming a generally EI-type optical fiber mounting plate, are also useful.

(4) In the above item (3), an optical switch in which the upper stopper is attached via a spacer on the coupling portion on the upper stopper side is also useful.

(5) In the above items (1) to (4), an optical switch obtained by removing one of the fibers of the first and second terms or one of the third and fourth optical fibers is also useful.

"Embodiment" A first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. For example, a plate-shaped mounting base 12 is mounted on a square plate-shaped base 11 along one edge of the base 11, and has a plate-shaped lower stopper 13 having the same height as the mounting base 12.
Is mounted on the base 11 along the other end opposite to the one end of the base 11 in parallel with the mount 12. In this example, the mounting base 12 and the lower stopper 13 are equal in length to one side of the base 11. These base 1
1. The mounting base 12 and the lower stopper 13 are made of, for example, aluminum, brass, or the like.

For example, a leaf spring 14 which is a rectangular plate having a thickness of about 0.1 mm and is made of nickel silver, phosphor bronze, or the like, and one end 14a of which is slightly bent upward, is disposed at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the mounting table 12. Then, the one end portion 14a is attached to the one end side of the mounting base 12. By bending the rectangular plate, the leaf spring
The free end 14 is displaced away from the upper surface of the lower stopper 13. That is, when the free end is in the free state, as shown in FIG.
Take a position further than 13.

A rectangular fixing plate 15 is arranged side by side with the leaf spring 14, and is attached to the mounting base 12 and the lower stopper 13 at right angles to the longitudinal direction thereof. The material of the fixing plate 15 is, for example, the same as that of the leaf spring 14, and the thickness thereof is made equal to that of the leaf spring 14. The other dimensions are almost the same as the leaf spring in this example.

A pair of first and second optical fibers 16, 17 having the same outer diameter
(The cladding diameter is, for example, 0.125 mm), but at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the fixing plate 15 (and thus along the longitudinal direction of the mounting base 12 and the lower stopper 13) on the upper and lower surfaces of the fixing plate 15, respectively. They are attached to each other by, for example, an adhesive 18 (FIG. 2). The end faces of the first and second optical fibers 16 and 17 are located almost in the middle between the leaf spring 14 and the fixed plate 15.

As the adhesive 18, an instantaneous adhesive, a photo-curable adhesive, or the like is used. However, the optical fiber can be attached mechanically without using an adhesive.

Third and fourth optical fibers 19 and 20 having the same outer diameter as the first and second optical fibers 16 and 17 are opposed to the upper surface and the lower surface of the leaf spring 14 at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the leaf spring 14, respectively. Then, similarly to the above, it is attached by, for example, an adhesive. When the free ends of the leaf springs 14 are pressed against the lower stopper 13, the end faces of the third and fourth optical fibers 19 and 20 are
The first and second optical fibers 16 and 17 are disposed so as to be in close proximity to the end faces, respectively, so that the optical axes coincide with each other. The end face of each optical fiber is treated so as to reduce light loss by stress rupture or polishing. Further, when reflection at the end face of the optical fiber becomes a problem, an antireflection coating such as a dielectric multilayer film may be applied to the end face.

An L-shaped upper stopper 21 is attached to the edge of the base 11 so as to cover a part of the lower stopper 13 and a free end of the leaf spring 14. The upper stopper 21 is made of aluminum, brass or the like. The upper stopper 21 abuts on the upper edge of the free end of the leaf spring 14, and limits the displacement of the leaf spring 14 so that the end face of the fourth optical fiber 20 is in close proximity to the end face of the first optical fiber 16 (FIG. 3B). reference).

When the end faces of the third and fourth optical fibers 19 and 20 are manually and closely opposed to the end faces of the first and second optical fibers 16 and 17, for example, the leaf spring driving section 26 shown in FIG.
Is provided above the leaf spring 14. In this example, the leaf spring driving section 26 separates the guide plate 22 above the intermediate portion of the leaf spring 14 and attaches, for example, to the base 11 (not shown) so that the guide plate 22 is parallel to the base 11. The rod 23 is inserted into the through hole formed in the thickness direction, that is, the direction orthogonal to the base 11.
Through the contact piece 24 at one end of the rod 23 on the leaf spring 14 side.
A push button 25 is attached to the other end. If the push button 25 is not pressed down, the free end of the leaf spring 14 is in elastic contact with the upper stopper 21 as shown in FIG. 4A. When the free end of the leaf spring 14 is brought into contact with the lower stopper 13 as shown in FIG. The 20 end faces are closely opposed to the end faces of the first and second optical fibers 16 and 17, respectively. Except for the external force F, the leaf spring 14 is displaced upward by its own elastic restoring force, and its free end comes into contact with the upper stopper 21. In FIG. 4, the fixing plate 15 and the first and second optical fibers 16 and 17 are omitted.

In order to electrically switch the optical switch, the rod 23 in FIG. 4 may be driven up and down by, for example, a plunger. As another method, as shown in FIG.
A magnetic piece 31 may be adhered to the lower surface of 14 and may be attracted by an electromagnet 32 provided outside the base 11.

Another Embodiment In the second embodiment, as shown in FIG.
The fixing plate 15 and the fixing plate 15 are connected to each other by a connecting portion 33 on the mounting base 12 side to be integrally formed. In the embodiment of FIG. 1, when assembling the optical switch, the leaf spring 14 to which the third and fourth optical fibers 19 and 20 are attached and the fixed plate 15 to which the first and second optical fibers 16 and 17 are attached are mutually connected. It is necessary to precisely match the positions, but if both are integrally formed as shown in FIG. 6, this need is eliminated.

In the third to fifth embodiments shown in FIGS. 7 to 9, the leaf spring integrated with the fixed plate 15 shown in FIG.
After the end thereof is extended on the mounting base 12 by a predetermined distance to the opposite side to the connecting portion 33, it is further extended in parallel with the fixing plate 15 to substantially the same length as the fixing plate 15, and L Shape extension
34 is formed, and its extension and the end of the fixed plate 15 are integrally connected by a connecting portion 35 on the lower stopper side,
As a result, an optical fiber mounting plate 36 having a substantially EI shape is formed.

The connecting portion 35 is formed substantially parallel to the longitudinal direction of the lower stopper 13. In the fourth embodiment shown in FIG. 8, a rectangular cut 37 is formed on the side of the connecting portion 35 facing the leaf spring 14 so as to surround the free end of the leaf spring. In the fifth embodiment shown in FIG. 9, claws 38 are formed on both shoulders of the free end of the leaf spring 14 so as to protrude, while the connecting portion 35 is provided with a notch 37 larger than the outer shape of the claw at a position facing the claws. Is formed.

7 to 9 show an EI type optical fiber mounting plate.
The plate-shaped upper stopper 21 is mounted on the side including the connecting portion 35 of the plate 36 via a plate-shaped spacer 39. Spacer 39
For example, a metal plate with a thickness of about 200 μm and a thickness of 5 to 30 μm
In order to accurately align the optical fibers that are close to each other, use a laminate of phosphor bronze foil that can be selected at a pitch of 5 μm, and I do. 8 and 9 in which the notch 37 is formed in the connecting portion 35, a similar notch 40 is formed at a position corresponding to the notch 37 of the spacer 39.
Is formed.

7 to 9, the optical fiber is omitted in the perspective view of A, and the upper stopper 21 is shown in the plan view of B.
2 shows a case in which the spacer 39 and the spacer 39 are omitted.

In the embodiment of FIGS. 6 to 9, FIGS.
The leaf spring driving section 26 shown in the figure can be applied.

In each of the first to fifth embodiments described above, the leaf spring
In order to reduce the rigidity of 14, a rectangular hole 40 may be provided so as to cut out the middle part of the bending line on the mounting base 12 side as shown in FIG.

In the description so far, the case where the 2 × 2 bypass type switch is constituted by two optical fibers on both the movable side and the fixed side is shown. However, the number of optical fibers is reduced to 1 × 1 2
It is apparent that a terminal type or 1 × 2 (or 2 × 1) three-terminal type optical switch can be similarly configured.

Each plate-shaped component to be laminated on the optical switch of the present invention can be easily manufactured by, for example, pressing or photo etching,
Easy installation by screwing or spot welding.

[Effect of the Invention] The optical switch of the present invention does not use precision optical components such as an optical lens and a movable mirror as in the related art, so that a small and inexpensive switch can be obtained. Also, since the structure is extremely simple, it can be easily manufactured.

The first and second optical fibers 16 and 17 and the third and fourth optical fibers 19 and 20 are respectively composed of a fixed plate 15 and a plate spring 14 having the same thickness.
Is mounted facing the upper and lower surfaces of the optical fiber, so that the distance between the pair of upper and lower optical fibers becomes equal. Further, in the structure of the present invention, since the optical fiber cannot be displaced in its own axial direction, the gap between the optical fiber end faces which are closely opposed can always be kept constant. from these things,
The accuracy of joining optical fiber end faces is improved, and stable loss characteristics can be obtained.

According to the present invention, a 2 × 2 bypass switch or the like can be easily configured.

In the case where the fixed plate 15 and the end of the leaf spring 14 on the mounting base 12 side are connected to be integrally formed, it is not necessary to align the two in the switch assembly, so that the number of assembling steps can be reduced and the end faces can be connected to each other. The accuracy of the association can be further improved.

The optical switch according to the present invention has a configuration in which each component to be laminated is easily formed in a thin sheet shape, so that a very thin switch as a whole can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1A and 1B are a perspective view and a plan view, respectively, showing a main part of a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view of a main part showing a state in which the optical fiber of FIG. 1 is fixed with an adhesive. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of a main portion when the switch is switched by displacing the leaf spring 14 of FIG. 1, and A is a diagram showing a case where the upper stopper 21 is removed and the leaf spring 14 is in a free state; B is a view showing a case where the free end of the leaf spring 14 abuts on the upper stopper 21 by its own elastic force, and the end faces of the first and fourth optical fibers 16 and 20 are closely opposed to each other. An external force F is applied to bring its free end into contact with the lower stopper 13,
The third and fourth optical fibers 1 are attached to the end faces of the second optical fibers 16 and 17.
FIG. 4 is a view showing a case in which the end faces of the optical switches 9 and 20 are opposed to each other, FIG. 4 is a sectional view of a main part when the optical switch of FIG. 1 is manually switched by a leaf spring driving unit 26, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view of a main part for explaining a leaf spring driving section 26 composed of a magnetic piece 31 attached to the leaf spring 14 and an electromagnet 32 provided outside the base 11, and FIG. FIGS. 7A and B are an exploded perspective view and a plan view showing a third embodiment of the present invention, respectively, and FIGS. 8A and B are fourth embodiments of the present invention, respectively. 9A and 9B are an exploded perspective view and a plan view, respectively, showing a fifth embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
11A is a longitudinal sectional view of a conventional optical switch, and FIG. 11B is a sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 11A.

Claims (5)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plate-like base, a plate-like mounting base mounted on the base, and a plate-shaped mounting base having the same height as the mounting base and mounted on the base in parallel with the mounting base. A lower stopper, and one end of the plate body is slightly bent upward, one end of the plate body is mounted on the mounting table, and the plate body is disposed at a right angle to the longitudinal direction of the mounting table. A leaf spring in which the free end of the plate body is displaced in a direction away from the upper surface of the lower stopper; and a plate spring having the same thickness as the leaf spring and being arranged alongside the leaf spring; And a fixed plate attached at a right angle to their longitudinal direction, with the end face facing the leaf spring side, and at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the fixed plate, on the upper surface and the lower surface of the fixed plate, respectively. Have the same outer diameter, mounted opposite each other The first and second optical fibers have an outer diameter equal to that of the first and second optical fibers, and are perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the leaf spring so that the end faces can be close to the end faces of the first and second optical fibers, respectively. The third, which are attached to the upper surface and the lower surface of the leaf spring so as to face each other,
A fourth optical fiber, an upper stopper that abuts on an upper end of the free end of the leaf spring, and makes an end face of the fourth optical fiber close to the end face of the first optical fiber; and a free end of the leaf spring contacts the lower stopper. A leaf spring driving section that elastically displaces the leaf spring so as to abut, thereby causing the end faces of the third and fourth optical fibers to approach and close to the end faces of the first and second optical fibers, respectively. Characteristic, optical switch. 2. The optical switch according to claim 1, wherein the leaf spring and the fixed plate are connected to each other by a connecting portion on the mounting base side to be integrally formed. 3. The leaf spring integrated with the fixing plate according to claim 2, wherein the end of the leaf spring is extended on the mounting base by a predetermined distance to a side opposite to the connecting portion. Further, an L-shaped extension is formed extending in parallel with the fixing plate to substantially the same length as the fixing plate, and the extended end and the end of the fixing plate are connected on the lower stopper on the lower stopper. An optical switch characterized in that the optical switch is integrally connected by a part, thereby forming a substantially EI-type optical fiber mounting plate. 4. The optical switch according to claim 3, wherein said upper stopper is mounted on said connecting portion via a spacer. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein
An optical switch formed by removing one of the first and second optical fibers or one of the third and fourth optical fibers.