Patent ID: 6925224

Claim:
An optical router comprising: a substantially planar substrate having an upper surface; a stator fixed to and projecting from said upper surface of said substrate; a rotor having a periphery and surrounding said stator so as to be rotatable about said stator; plurality of arcuate and non-intersecting optical waveguides extending across each half of said rotor in a substantially transverse plane and having ends opening onto said periphery of said rotor; and a substantially planar layer on said substrate surrounding said rotor and having a plurality of optical waveguides formed therein, said waveguides having openings opening at least one end onto a space surrounding said rotor, said stator, said rotor, and said planar layer having been formed on said substrate by a series of deposition and etching steps, wherein said ends of said waveguides on said rotor are alignable with said openings of said waveguides on said planar layer by rotation of said rotor about said stator.