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Functional Structure of Optical Switches
Mechanical Optical Switches: Use physical movement of fibers or mirrors to redirect light. Throughout this paper, the term “optical switch” shall refer only to switches that manipulate light beams directly. Switches that perform the switching function by. Optical switching is the process of controlling the destination of individual optical information signals. Figure: Optical Switch. Pla-nar lightwave circuit (PLC) based optical switch technologies constitute the topic of the next section, and the treatment includes switches in various material systems such as LiNbO3, polymer, silicon-on-insulator (SOI), and switching by means of the electro-optic- or thermo-optic effect. The. Micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) are miniature electrically operated mechanical devices which can be constructed using the same materials and similar processing techniques as for large scale integrated electronic components.
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