Patent ID: 7155125

Claim:
A control apparatus for an optical switch with a three-dimensional structure that uses a plurality of MEMS mirrors to switch optical paths connecting between a plurality of input and output channels, comprising: driving means for supplying a drive voltage to said plurality of MEMS mirrors; controlling means for controlling an angle of inclination of each of the MEMS mirrors by changing a state of the drive voltage supplied by said driving means; and initial value setting means for, when the connection or switching of said optical paths is requested, giving an initial value of drive voltage to be supplied to the MEMS mirror corresponding to said request to said driving means, wherein said initial value setting means comprising: an initial value storing section that stores in advance information of reference temperature in relation to the angle of inclination of each of the MEMS mirrors corresponding to the optical path setting; a temperature detecting section that detects a temperature of said optical switch; and a calculating section that, when the connection or switching of the optical paths is requested, acquires the information of the reference temperature corresponding to said request, from said initial value storing section, reads out the temperature of said optical switch detected by said temperature detecting section, calculates a drive voltage in which a deviation due to the temperature variation from the reference temperature is compensated for, based on the information acquired from said initial value storing section and the temperature read out from said temperature detecting section, and gives the calculated drive voltage to said driving means as an initial value.