Patent ID: 9429712
Filing Date: 2016-08-30
CPC Classification: G02B,H04Q

Claim Text:
1. A dual-ganged optical switch for simultaneous switching of a transmit signal path and a receive signal path with respect to a common port of an associated communication device, the dual-ganged optical switch comprising: an optical waveguiding structure oriented in an x-y plane and including a 1×N array of receive optical waveguides disposed along a y-direction in the x-y plane and a 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides disposed adjacent to the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides such that each transmit optical waveguide is aligned in an x-direction with a separate one of receive optical waveguides, with each adjacent pair of receive and transmit optical waveguides defining an optical channel, the optical waveguiding structure further comprising a device common port including a device transmit optical waveguide disposed in y-direction alignment with the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides and a device receive optical waveguide disposed adjacent to the device transmit optical waveguide and in y-direction alignment with the 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides; a biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element providing simultaneous left-right (y-axis) and top-down (x-axis) optical signal redirection within the x-y plane, the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element disposed to couple optical signals between a selected optical channel and the device common port such that an optical signal propagating along a receive optical waveguide of the selected optical channel is redirected in the device receive optical waveguide of the common port and an optical signal exiting the common port along the device transmit optical waveguide is redirected into a transmit optical waveguide of the selected optical channel; and a collimating lens disposed in an optical signal path between the optical waveguiding structure and the optical signal redirection element, wherein switching between optical channels coupled to the common port is controlled by reorienting the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element in both the x-direction and the y-direction so as to change the selected optical channel that intercepts the redirection element while also maintaining coupling with the device common port, providing dual-ganged switching of the transmit and receive signal paths.