초록 ▼

An optical switching device comprises: a light guide including a total reflection plane capable of totally reflecting light thereby transmitting the light; a switching part capable of, at a position where its extraction plane is in close contact with the total reflection plane, capturing evanescent

An optical switching device comprises: a light guide including a total reflection plane capable of totally reflecting light thereby transmitting the light; a switching part capable of, at a position where its extraction plane is in close contact with the total reflection plane, capturing evanescent light and reflecting the captured light thereby outputting it; and a driving part for driving the optical switching part. The light guide, the switching part, and the driving part are laminated in this order into a multilayer structure. The employment of the multilayer structure makes it possible to optimize the respective layers independently of one another. The extracted light does not pass through the driving part. This allows the driving part to be optimized so as to achieve an optical switching device capable of operating at a high speed with low power consumption. Thus, it is possible to provide a low-loss and high-contrast optical switching device using an evanescent wave, which can respond at a high speed.

대표청구항 ▼

1. An optical switching device comprising:a light guide including a total reflection plane capable of totally reflecting light thereby transmitting the light; a switching part including a light-transmissive extraction plane capable of extracting evanescent light leaking through said total reflection

1. An optical switching device comprising:a light guide including a total reflection plane capable of totally reflecting light thereby transmitting the light; a switching part including a light-transmissive extraction plane capable of extracting evanescent light leaking through said total reflection plane and reflecting the extracted light toward said light guide; and driving means for moving said switching part to a first position at which said extraction plane is within an extraction range which allows an evanescent light to be extracted and a second position at which said extraction plane is out of said extraction range, wherein said light guide, said switching part, and said driving means are disposed in this order in a direction in which light is output, and wherein said driving means includes: a supporting member for elastically supporting said switching part; and electrostatic driving means for driving said switching part by an electrostatic force acting between at least one pair of electrodes, and wherein when no electrostatic force is generated by said electrostatic driving means, said supporting member is capable of pressing said switching part at said first position toward said light guide.