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2000
Conference Paper
Titel
Fiber optic switches using transmittive microoptical components
Abstract
Several novel configurations for fiber optic switches have been developed on the base of transmittive microoptical components partly driven by piezoelectric actuators. The fiber input beams are collimated or transformed by short focal length microlenses. The transformed beams then are deflected by special microprism configurations attached to piezoelectric actuators. The deflected output beams are coupled into a series of output fibers again by short focal length microlenses arranged as regular arrays. The required microoptical components have been realized for implementation into fiber optic switches: 1. Microlens arrays for collimation of the input fiber beam(s) and focusing the beams, into the output fiberchannels, and 2. Microprism configurations for beam deflection inside the fiber switches. Both types of microoptical components have been realized by replication techniques with very high quality.