Introduce To Mechanical Optical Switch

The development of practical optical switches will probably be the final step in the deployment of the complete optical network of the next decade switching has always bottleneck that has yielded many innovative solutions and novel implementations ,so there should be an array of switching techniques developed as designs shift toward the Mechanical Optical Switch .We have defined a whole new set of signals that not only need to be multiplexed and demilitarised, but is required to provide the vast switching matrix required for efficient communications.Optical switches and cross connects will take the place of today's intermediate devices, maintaining the functionality of current switches, routers, and gateways.

Several optical fiber switches are generally used for telecommunicatoins using an optical network.Mechanical 1*2 optical switches which adjust the optical axis of fibers by mechanical motion of a movable fiber have been developed using several micro actuator.Including SMA actuators.The switches have advantages of low insertion loss and high cross -channel isolation because of the admirable optical property of optical fibers.

Utilizing standard optical fibers, mechanical 1*2 optical switches have been fabricated.A meandering SMA actuator for lateral displacement of a movable fiber has been fabricated by laser cutting of an SMA sheet.V-grooves for precise positioning of the movable fiber are fabricated by anisotropic etching of the Si substrate.

Mechanical 1*2 optical switches using Plastic Optical Fiber Cable (POF) with a relatively large core diameter have been developed.A magnetic latch keeps the position of the movable POF on the left or right side at a steady state.SMA microcode is included with a magnetic material ring and electrodes by soldering.

The evolution of optical communications systems indicates that the optical networks of the near future will be mesh-based WDM nodes with multilaterally switching capabilities.This innovative optical transport layer will use optical cross connects and Roadms,. To establish fast reconfiguration and provisioning of bandwidth for the transport of all types of communications protocols, since a constant Mechanical Optical Switch is not yet available, MEMS Optical Switch  is currently utilized.