Patent Description:
With the rapid development of optical fiber communication technologies, an optical fiber that can previously transmit only one wavelength can now transmit <NUM> or even more wavelengths, and a transmission speed of each wavelength is greatly increased. In a dense wavelength division multiplexing technology, a plurality of wavelengths are gathered together to be amplified and transmitted as a whole in one optical fiber. In this way, a transmission capacity is greatly increased without upgrading an existing optical fiber transmission device. A future all-optical network may be based on the dense wavelength division multiplexing technology. An optical cross system is a core device in the dense wavelength division multiplexing all-optical network, and can avoid an electronic bottleneck caused by optical-to-electrical and electrical-to optical conversion on each node in a high-speed electrical transmission network, thereby implementing highly-reliable, large-capacity, and highly-flexible transmission. The optical cross system implements switching between different optical ports by using a built-in optical switching engine. To implement such switching between optical ports, for an optical cross apparatus, at present, an optical port is usually generated by using a method shown in <FIG>.

In the optical cross apparatus shown in <FIG>, two one-dimensional fiber arrays are bonded together side by side, to form one two-dimensional light outlet port. In the optical cross apparatus shown in <FIG>, each optical path of the optical cross apparatus is generated by punching holes on a silicon material or a glass material, and an optical fiber passes through these through holes to form two-dimensional light outlet ports.

Consequently, an optical cross solution of the optical cross apparatus is fixed and processing costs are relatively high.

<CIT> describes an optical adapter that is arranged to connect two or more optical devices that have different connector layouts, the optical adapter comprising a material through which a plurality of waveguides is formed. <CIT> relates to three-dimensional (3D) photonic chip-to-fiber interposer. <CIT> relates to connection device, optical connector manufacturing device, connection method, and method for manufacturing optical connector.

Implementations of this application provide an optical cross apparatus, for providing a plurality of optical cross solutions, reducing process costs, and eliminating coupling loss.

According to a first aspect, an implementation of this application provides an optical cross apparatus. The optical cross apparatus includes a single-row fiber array and a single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, where the single-row fiber array is coupled to the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, and an arbitrarily curved spatial three-dimensional waveguide is generated inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element; and a coupling surface of the single-row fiber array is the same as that of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element.

It may be understood that, on the coupling surface of the single-row fiber array and the coupling surface of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, a quantity of light outlets included in the single-row fiber array is the same as a quantity of light inlets included in the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide, and after coupling, positions are also in one-to-one correspondence, to smoothly transmit optical signals.

In the optical cross apparatus provided in this implementation, the arbitrarily curved spatial three-dimensional waveguide exists inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element. As a result, light outlets of the optical waveguide element can be arbitrarily combined, so that the optical cross apparatus can implement a plurality of optical cross solutions. In addition, the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the optical waveguide element can be arbitrarily designed and molded through one-step forming, to reduce processing costs of the optical cross apparatus.

According to the claimed invention, a surface of each light outlet of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element is processed in a femtosecond laser processing manner to generate a microlens, and the microlens is configured to perform beam shaping on beams output from the light outlet. In this implementation, the light outlet of the optical waveguide element is processed through one-step forming in the femtosecond laser processing manner, to generate the microlens, so that no gap is left between the microlens and the light outlet of the optical waveguide element, and no coupling loss is introduced anymore.

Optionally, the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element is generated in a femtosecond laser processing manner. In this implementation, when the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the optical waveguide element uses the femtosecond laser processing manner, processing of the optical waveguide element can be facilitated, so that a processing method is easier, and processing costs are reduced. In addition, after femtosecond laser processing is performed, a distance between light outlets after processing can reach a micron level, to implement high-density light emitting, and provide solutions for a high-density and multi-port optical cross system. In addition, a path position of the spatial waveguide in the optical waveguide element can achieve precision of a submicron level, to greatly improve debugging efficiency of the optical cross apparatus.

Optionally, a combination form of light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element includes but is not limited to two or more rows, non-uniform distribution, tilting distribution, or high-density arrangement. In this implementation, a plurality of combination manners are generated for the light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, so that the optical cross apparatus can implement a plurality of optical cross solutions.

According to a second aspect, based on the optical cross apparatus in the first aspect, a transmission path of optical signals in the optical cross apparatus is as follows: Optical signals enter from single-row light inlets of the single-row fiber array, and are output from single-row light outlets of the single-row fiber array to single-row input ports of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element; and the optical signals are transmitted from optical paths of the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element to light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide.

In the specification, claims, and accompanying drawings of this application, the terms "first", "second", and so on (if existent) are intended to distinguish between similar objects, but do not necessarily indicate a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data termed in such a way are interchangeable in appropriate circumstances, so that the implementations described herein can be implemented in other orders than the order illustrated or described herein. Moreover, the terms "include", "contain" and any other variants mean to cover the non-exclusive inclusion, for example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a list of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those units, but may include other steps or units not expressly listed or inherent to such a process, method, product, or device.

With the rapid development of optical fiber communication technologies, an optical fiber that can previously transmit only one wavelength can now transmit <NUM> or even more wavelengths, and a transmission speed of each wavelength is greatly increased. In a dense wavelength division multiplexing technology, a plurality of wavelengths are gathered together to be amplified and transmitted as a whole in one optical fiber. In this way, a transmission capacity is greatly increased without upgrading an existing optical fiber transmission device. A future all-optical network may be based on the dense wavelength division multiplexing technology. An optical cross system is a core device in the dense wavelength division multiplexing all-optical network, and can avoid an electronic bottleneck caused by optical-to-electrical and electrical-to optical conversion on each node in a high-speed electrical transmission network, thereby implementing highly-reliable, large-capacity, and highly-flexible transmission. An optical cross system (also referred to as an optical cross device) implements switching between different optical ports by using a built-in optical switching engine. A specific application scenario of the optical cross system is shown in <FIG>: Optical signals are output to the optical cross apparatus by using an input terminal; then, the optical cross apparatus changes the single-row input optical signals to multidimensional output beams, and transmits the beams to a flare shaping system; the flare shaping system shapes the beams; after dispersion compensation is performed on the optical fiber signals by using an optical signal dispersion system, channel switching is then performed, and finally the optical signals are output by using an output terminal, and connected to an optical fiber of the output terminal.

As shown in <FIG>, an implementation of this application provides an optical cross apparatus <NUM>, including a single-row fiber array <NUM> and a single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, where the single-row fiber array <NUM> is coupled to the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, and an arbitrarily curved spatial three-dimensional waveguide is generated inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>; and a coupling surface of the single-row fiber array <NUM> is the same as that of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>.

In this implementation, on the coupling surface of the single-row fiber array <NUM> and the coupling surface of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, a quantity of light outlets included in the single-row fiber array <NUM> is the same as a quantity of light inlets included in the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide <NUM>, and after coupling, positions are also in one-to-one correspondence, to smoothly transmit optical signals.

As shown in <FIG>, assuming that the single-row fiber array <NUM> includes five light outlets, and the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> includes <NUM> light inlets, which form a combination of five rows and two columns at positions of the light outlets, two single-row fiber arrays <NUM> are required when the optical cross apparatus <NUM> is assembled, so that a quantity of light outlets of the single-row fiber arrays <NUM> is the same as that of the light inlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, and positions are in one-to-one correspondence.

Because paths of the spatial three-dimensional waveguide that can be arbitrarily curved exist inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, any combination can be generated for light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>. As shown in <FIG>, a combination of the light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> includes but is not limited to two or more rows of ports, non-uniform distribution of ports, tilting distribution of ports, or high-density arrangement of ports. A specific combination manner is not limited herein, provided that a specific requirement is satisfied. It may be understood that, the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> can perform more than single-row input double-row output (that is, generate two-dimensional light outlets). Because the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> is a cube, light output can be performed on all surfaces other than a surface in which single-row light inlets are located, to generate light outlets. As shown in <FIG>, the optical signals are output from single-row light inlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, then pass through paths of the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, and are output from light outlets distributed in three-dimensions space.

According to the claimed invention, a surface of each light outlet of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> is processed in a femtosecond laser processing manner to generate a microlens, and the microlens is configured to perform beam shaping on beams output from the light outlet. In this implementation, the light outlet of the optical waveguide element is processed through one-step forming in the femtosecond laser processing manner, to generate the microlens, so that no gap is left between the microlens and the light outlet of the optical waveguide element, and no coupling loss is introduced anymore. Specifically, as shown in <FIG>, there are a plurality of light outlets in a light emitting direction of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, and each light outlet has a microlens that is directly processed and formed on a surface of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>, to form a microlens array.

Optionally, the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> is generated in a femtosecond laser processing manner. In the femtosecond laser technology, an extremely high peak power (pulse energy/pulse width) can be obtained by using relatively low pulse energy because a pulse width of laser is very short. When a material to be processed is further focused by using an objective lens, or the like, because energy density near a focal point is very high, various strong nonlinear effects can be caused. Femtosecond laser can perform three-dimensional processing and modification on inside of a transparent material such as an optical fiber. In this implementation, when the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the optical waveguide element uses the femtosecond laser processing manner, processing of the optical waveguide element can be facilitated, so that a processing method is easier, and processing costs are reduced. In addition, after femtosecond laser processing is performed, a distance between light outlets after processing can reach a micron level, to implement high-density light emitting, and provide solutions for a high-density and multi-port optical cross system. In addition, a path position of the spatial waveguide in the optical waveguide element can achieve precision of a submicron level, to greatly improve debugging efficiency of the optical cross apparatus. When the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> in this application is processed in the femtosecond laser processing manner, a processing path of each path in the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> needs to be set first, and then the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM> is processed by using the processing path. In an example, as shown in <FIG>, in a three-dimensional coordinate system, a waveguide path from (x<NUM>, y<NUM>, z<NUM>) to (x<NUM>, y<NUM>, z<NUM>) is designed for the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element <NUM>.

Based on the foregoing optical cross apparatus, a transmission path of optical signals in the optical cross apparatus is as follows: Optical signals enter from single-row light inlets of the single-row fiber array, and are output from single-row light outlets of the single-row fiber array to single-row input ports of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element; and the optical signals are transmitted from optical paths of the spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element to light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide.

A processing method of the optical cross apparatus is as follows:
Each path of the spatial three-dimensional waveguide in the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element is designed first, and then a processing path of the path of the spatial three-dimensional waveguide is input to a femtosecond laser processing system; and the femtosecond laser processing system processes the optical waveguide element that is not processed.

This application further provides an optical cross device. For details, refer to <FIG>. The optical cross device <NUM> includes an optical cross apparatus <NUM> described in any one of <FIG>, a lens system <NUM>, and an optical switching system <NUM>. The optical cross apparatus <NUM> includes a single-row fiber array and a single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element. Light inlets of the single-row fiber array are configured to receive optical signals, and light outlets of the single-row fiber array are coupled to and in one-to-one correspondence with light inlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, so that the optical signals are transmitted from optical paths of a spatial three-dimensional waveguide inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element to light outlets of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide. The lens system includes a lens combination and a grating, and is configured to shape an optical path output by the optical cross apparatus. The optical switching system is configured to switch an output port of the optical path. The optical switching system may be a liquid crystal on silicon (liquid crystal on silicon, LCOS) programmable element or a micro-electro-mechanical system (micro-electro-mechanical system, MEMS) mirror array.

In this implementation, the optical cross device may be an optical cross-connect (optical cross-connect, OXC) switch or a wavelength selective switch (wavelength selective switch, WSS).

It may be clearly understood by persons skilled in the art that, for purpose of convenient and brief description, for a detailed working process of the foregoing system, apparatus, and unit, refer to a corresponding process in the foregoing method implementations, and details are not described herein again.

In the several implementations provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed system, apparatus, and method may be implemented in other manners. For example, the described apparatus implementation is merely an example. For example, division into units is merely logical function division and may be other division during actual implementation. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutual couplings or direct couplings or communication connections may be implemented through some interfaces.

Some or all of the units may be selected based on an actual requirement to achieve the objectives of the solutions in the implementations.

In addition, functional units in the implementations of this application may be integrated into one processing unit, or each of the units may exist alone physically, or two or more units may be integrated into one unit.

When the integrated unit is implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, the integrated unit may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, the technical solutions of this application essentially, or the part contributing to the current technology, or all or some of the technical solutions may be implemented in the form of a software product. The computer software product is stored in a storage medium and includes several instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the implementations of this application. The foregoing storage medium includes any medium that can store program code, such as a USB flash drive, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM), a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

Claim 1:
An optical cross apparatus, comprising:
a single-row fiber array (<NUM>) and a single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element (<NUM>), wherein the single-row fiber array is coupled to the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, and an arbitrarily curved spatial three-dimensional waveguide is provided inside the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element, wherein
a coupling surface of the single-row fiber array is the same as that of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element;
wherein a microlens is formed on
a surface of each light outlet of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element by femtosecond laser processing such that there is no gap between the light outlet of the single-row input multidimensional output optical waveguide element and the microlens, and the microlens is configured to perform beam shaping.