Proceedings Article | 26 November 2009
KEYWORDS: Optical switching, Fiber lasers, Computer programming, Field programmable gate arrays, Pulsed laser operation, Mirrors, Optical scanning systems, Reflectors, Switches, Fiber optics
A novel scanning fiber optical system for multi-channel optical switch has been demonstrated. This scanning fiber
system consists of motor, photoelectric encoder, EPOS position controller, Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA),
fiber laser, transmitting energy fiber bundle, reflector,
five-dimensional optical adjustable mounts, etc. In this device, the
control system is composed of EPOS position controller and FPGA. Furthermore, the photoelectric encoder is directly
connected to the central shaft of the motor to read its position information. The reflector is slantways fixed on the other
end of the motor central shaft. Also, the fiber bundle is fixed by optical adjustable mounts to achieve slight position
adjustment, which is used as launching system of this configuration. In the operation process, the motor in uniform
rotation state drives the photoelectric encoder and the reflector at the same angle velocity. The photoelectric encoder
reads the incremental signal and absolute position signal of motor, and then sends them to EPOS position controller and
FPGA respectively. FPGA sends square wave signal to the fiber laser under the control of EPOS position controller and
FPGA. Triggered by the square wave signal, the fiber laser emits a laser pulse to the center point of the reflector. At the
same time, the reflector makes the laser pulse transmitting into a certain transmitting energy fiber according to the angle
of the reflector at that moment. Therefore, with the motor rotates at uniform speed, the laser pulse is sent to different
fibers, by which multi-channel optical switch is completed.
