A silicon-based moving-mirror optical switch

A multimode 2*2 optical switch made from chemically micro-machined silicon piece parts is described. This switch uses microlenses, aligned to fibers by a silicon base, to expand the optical beam and relax alignment tolerances and a pivoting silicon mirrors as the switching mechanism. The moving mirror switch meets or exceeds all the requirements for FDDI applications. The switch loss is typically 0.7 dB and operates at 5 V and 30 mA. The switch insertion/deinsertion time is less than 10 ms, and the optical interruption time is less than 1 ms. The switch design, which minimizes alignments in fabrication and provides for z-axis assembly and the low cost of the high precision piece parts contribute to making this a low-cost switch to manufacture.<
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