Patent ID: 7236657

Claim:
An optical switch, provided in a middle of an optical transmission line, for switching between a case when a light sent through the optical transmission line is straightly transmitted, and a case when the light sent through the optical transmission line is transmitted to an outside location and the light from the outside location is introduced to the optical transmission line, the optical switch comprising: an input light emitting collimator device which extracts the light sent through the optical transmission line from an end face of an optical fiber of the optical transmission line on the upstream side, then, collimates and emits the light thus extracted; an output light receiving collimator device which receives the collimated light emitted from the input light emitting collimator device which is located a predetermined distance therefrom, and introduces the collimated light to the optical transmission line from the end face of the optical fiber of the optical transmission line on the downstream side; and a light switching part retractably arranged between the input light emitting collimator device and the output light receiving collimator device, wherein the light switching part includes: a drop light receiving collimator device which receives the collimated light emitted from the input light emitting collimator device, introduces the collimated light from the end face of the optical fiber of a dropping transmission line to the dropping transmission line, and sends the collimated light to the outside location when the light switching part is arranged between the input emitting collimator device and the output light receiving collimator device; and an add light emitting collimator device which extracts light sent from an outside location through an adding transmission line from the end face of the optical fiber of the adding transmission line, collimates the light, and emits the collimated light to the output light receiving collimator device, which introduces the collimated light to the optical transmission line when the light switching part is arranged between the input light emitting collimator device and the output light receiving collimator device.