SELF-ALIGNMENT TYPE MECHANICAL OPTICAL SWITCH

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an optical switch which is mechanically stable. SOLUTION: The self-alignment type optical switch which has low insertion loss and is mechanically stable is obtained by using two silica optical structures 35 including plural waveguides 37. The waveguides 37 and 42 in each structure are arranged on a common plane. This silica optical structure can be obtained by cutting a monolithic silica optical structure. In one embodiment, the structures are arranged on flat surfaces of a movable and a fixed base 5 which are arrayed on the common plane. The structures are positioned having cut edge parts facing each other adjacently. The waveguides 37 and 42 of the cut structures align themselves effectively in the direction perpendicular to the flat surface of a base. At operation time, the movable base 15 moves along the cut edge parts to make selective connections between the waveguides of the respective structures.