ALIGNMENT OF AN OPTICAL FIBER SWITCH

摘要

An optical fiber switch in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention includes a first plurality of ports (10a-10e), a second plurality of ports (40a-40e), a first plurality of mirrors (18a-18e) disposed on a first surface, and a second plurality of mirrors (26a-26e) disposed on a second surface. Each one of the first plurality of mirrors is individually controllable to direct light output from a corresponding one of the first plurality of ports to any one of the second plurality of mirrors. Each one of the second plurality of mirrors is individually controllable to direct to a corresponding one of the second plurality of ports light incident on it from any one of the first plurality of mirrors. Advantageously, optical fiber switches in accordance with embodiments of the present invention may couple more than a thousand input ports to more than a thousand output ports with an insertion loss of less than about 3 decibels.