Patent ID: 7450801

Claim:
An optical switch comprising: a plurality of planar lightwave circuits (PLCs) each including at least two waveguides terminating at an edge facet of the PLC; and one or more lenses for imaging light beams emitted from the waveguides onto a single linear array of tilting micromirrors, said one or more lenses configured to collimate said light beams in a first direction and image said light beams in a direction different from said first direction, and each of said tilting micromirrors configured to rotate about an axis; wherein said waveguides, said one or more lenses and a micromirror of said linear array of tilting micromirrors are configured to image a light beam emitted from one of said waveguides onto said micromirror, reflect said light beam through at least one of said one or more lenses and image said light beam onto and couple said light beam into one of said waveguides.