Mechanical one-to-many fiber-optic switch.

A mechanical multimode fiber-optic switch has been developed which uses a spherical mirror mounted on a galvanometer scanner to switch multimode light from one to many other fibers located in a linear array in the one-to-one imaging plane of the mirror. Characteristics of the switch include (1) measured optical insertion loss less than 1.5 dB; (2) optical isolation greater than 37 dB; (3) switching rate of 300 Hz; (4) potential for greater than one-to-ten fiber switching; and (5) little degradation of device characteristics after 10(6) switchings between two output fibers spaced four fiber diameters apart.