Development Of Waveguide Of Array Optical Switch Based On Micro-fluid Control Technology

Optical switches and optical switch array are important components in optical fiber communication system. In the development of optical fiber communication technology, especially in the application of data communications and DWDM systems, complex network topology produces a strong demand for reliable and flexible network management. The application of DWDM in the metro and access network needs optical switch with the functions of plug/min and switching more urgently. As the network turned to all-optical platform, the network capabilities such as optical domain optimization, routing, protection and self-healing have become very important which cannot be separated from optical switch. Fiber optical switch which is proposed in this paper combines modern microfluidic technology with the twilight electronics technology. The structure of waveguide in this switch is controlled by electric method in order to achieve the change of optical path. This kind of optical switches has many advantages, such as short switch-time, little cubage, good stability, easy to integrated etc.On the basis of the research and development of optical switch and the theory of optical waveguide, a novel optical switch based on the micro-fluidic technology is proposed in this paper. The structure of fiber optical switch includes cover, the exchange region and waveguide layer. Waveguide layer is composed of fiber and base plate. The exchange region is composed of micro flow channel, liquid reservoir and piezoelectric ceramic. The basic idea of optical switch is that squeezing the liquid in the liquid reservoir and the gas in the micro flow channel with the inverse piezoelectric effect of piezoelectric ceramic can control the flow of liquid so that the purpose of controlling the optical path is achieved.Optical switch loss is one of the important performance parameters of optical switch. The loss of the optical switch proposed in this paper mainly comes from the coupling loss of the waveguide layer and exchange region. In this paper, the writer uses optical waveguide theory and Opti-fiber software to simulate the loss and researches all kinds of factors which have impact on optical switch loss. Then the writer embeds the optical fiber in the V-trough and finely tunes the two optical fibers'relative position through adjusting frame to do experiments. The optical switch loss under different situations is measured in the experiments.Finally, the analysis and optimization of optical switch'structure and materials has been done with the theoretical simulation and experimental results. The optimized optical switch coupling loss is reduced further which is proved in the experiment and this establishes a theoretical and experimental basis for the further research and production of the optical switch.