Optical Switching

4Magneto‐Optical Switches

K. Sujatha

Department of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Shree Ramchandra College of Engineering, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune, Maharashtra, India

4.1 Introduction

The most comprehensive optical switch device is used to open or close an optical circuit. It can be of a mechanical, opto‐mechanical, or electronic type. An optical switch has one or more available input ports and two or more output ports that we commonly call a 1 × N or N × N optical switch.

An optical switch (Figure 4.1) is a multiport network bridge which connects multiple optical cables to each other and controls data packages route between input and outputs. Some electric switches convert lights into electrical data before moving forward and switch them to make the light switch again. Some optical switches, called all‐optical, can route and move forward in the lights themselves without an electrical switch [1, 2].

Fiber‐optic switches connect the wiring to the output fibers on a one‐to‐one basis. They also establish and release connections between fiber pathways. The fiber‐optic switches available today are all low‐voltage exposed. Again, they have less impact on the operator signals and fiber‐optic connectors.

4.1.1 Types of Optical Switch

Depending on the variety of fabrication process and technologies, optical switches can be divided into mechanical switches, MEMS (microelectromechanical system) switches, electro‐optical switches, thermo‐optical switches, ...