Patent ID: 7031611

Claim:
An optical routing device for coupling each of a plurality N E of incoming optical channels ( 1 ) to any one of a plurality N S of outgoing optical channels ( 5 ) and for directing each of the optical beams entering via the incoming optical channels toward any of the N S outgoing optical channels, N E and N S each being an integer greater than 1, the optical routing device comprising: an input module ( 40 ) having N E optical inputs, that is designed to shape each of the beams entering via the incoming optical channels so as to obtain a plurality of shaped optical beams ( 112 ); an input deflection module ( 30 ) designed to generate, for each of the inputs, a number P TN of different angular deflection positions at least equal to the number N S of outgoing optical channels, the input deflection module comprising N E lines each having a plurality of deflection elements arranged in cascade and each able to adopt a plurality of angular deflection configurations numbering less than the number P TN , each said deflection element being, in each line, coupled to a preceding said deflection element by an optical conjugation element designed to carry out object-to-image conjugation with a magnification G between said deflection element and the preceding said deflection element; a linking module ( 50 ) designed to collate, in a one-to-one manner, the P TN angular deflection positions of each of the inputs with respect to P TN spatial focusing points respectively, this module being designed to generate P TN intermediate optical beams; an output deflection module ( 35 ) having P TN inputs, that is designed to intercept the P TN intermediate optical beams and to generate, from the intermediate optical beams, N S output beams, the output deflection module comprising N S lines each comprising a plurality of angular deflection elements in cascade and able to adopt a plurality of angular deflection configurations numbering less than the number of N S , each said deflection element being, in each line, coupled to a preceding said deflection element by an optical conjugation element designed to carry out object image conjugation with a magnification G between this deflection element and the preceding one; and an optical output module ( 45 ) designed to shape each of the N S output beams so as to be able to apply them to the N S outgoing channels.