Characteristics of 16×16 micro optical switch

We measured the characteristics of free space type 16/spl times/16 micro optical switches. Two types of micro mirrors to switch the laser beam were used. One is electrostatic actuation type and the other is mixing (electromagnetic+electrostatic) type. We could lessen the insertion loss by arranging the lenses in zigzag style which shorten the optical path. We compared the insertion losses of the optical switches with that of in-line type bench which has loss from the optical bench part only. The loss from the bench part was about 2 dB while the total insertion loss was about 5 dB and 12 dB for each mirror type. From this result, the main reason of the insertion loss was known to be from the mirror part. The switching time was about 15 msec. and the crosstalk was less than 50 dB for both types of switches.