Dual-ganged optical switch

1. A dual-ganged optical switch for simultaneous switching of a transmit signal path and a receive signal path with respect to a common port of an associated communication device, the dual-ganged optical switch comprising:

an optical waveguiding structure oriented in an x-y plane and including a 1×N array of receive optical waveguides disposed along a y-direction in the x-y plane and a 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides disposed adjacent to the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides such that each transmit optical waveguide is aligned in an x-direction with a separate one of receive optical waveguides, with each adjacent pair of receive and transmit optical waveguides defining an optical channel, the optical waveguiding structure further comprising a device common port including a device transmit optical waveguide disposed in y-direction alignment with the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides and a device receive optical waveguide disposed adjacent to the device transmit optical waveguide and in y-direction alignment with the 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides;

a biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element providing simultaneous left-right (y-axis) and top-down (x-axis) optical signal redirection within the x-y plane, the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element disposed to couple optical signals between a selected optical channel and the device common port such that an optical signal propagating along a receive optical waveguide of the selected optical channel is redirected in the device receive optical waveguide of the common port and an optical signal exiting the common port along the device transmit optical waveguide is redirected into a transmit optical waveguide of the selected optical channel; and

a collimating lens disposed in an optical signal path between the optical waveguiding structure and the optical signal redirection element, wherein switching between optical channels coupled to the common port is controlled by reorienting the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element in both the x-direction and the y-direction so as to change the selected optical channel that intercepts the redirection element while also maintaining coupling with the device common port, providing dual-ganged switching of the transmit and receive signal paths.

2. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 1 wherein the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides comprises a 1×N array of optical fibers and the 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides comprises a 1×N array of optical fibers.

3. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 1 wherein the optical communication device receive/transmit optical waveguides comprise a pair of optical fibers.

4. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 1 wherein the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element comprises a micro-electro-mechanical-system (MEMS)-based mirror.

5. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 1 wherein the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element is selected from the group consisting of: a MEMS-based mirror, a liquid-crystal-based switching element, a piezoelectric-based switching element, an acousto-electric switching element, and a liquid-crystal-on-silicon switching element.

6. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 1 wherein coupling between non-selected transmit and receive optical waveguides is reduced by setting a position of the device common port to create a non-symmetric configuration, wherein the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element is reoriented along both the x-axis and y-axis to compensate for the non-symmetric configuration.

7. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 6 wherein each 1×N array of optical waveguides exhibits a predetermined pitch P defined as a spacing between a center of a first optical waveguide and a center of a second optical waveguide, and the device common port is ports are disposed to create a spacing of 1.5*P between the 1×N arrays of optical waveguides and the device common port.

8. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 6 wherein each 1×N array of optical waveguides comprises two separate arrays, including a 1×M array disposed above the common port and a 1×(N−M) array disposed below the common port, where 1<M<N and each separate array exhibits a predetermined pitch P defined as a spacing between a center of a first optical waveguide and a center of a second optical waveguide, and the device common port is disposed to create a spacing of 1.5*P between the common port and each separate array, yielding a spacing of 3.0*P between the separate arrays.

9. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 1 wherein each 1×N array of optical waveguides includes a predetermined gap spacing between adjacent receive optical waveguides, and the same predetermined gap spacing between adjacent transmit optical waveguides.

10. The dual-ganged optical switch as defined in claim 9 wherein each 1×N array of optical waveguides exhibits a predetermined pitch P g as a spacing between a center of a first optical waveguide and a center of a second optical waveguide including the gap therebetween, with the device common port disposed to create a spacing of 1.5*P g between the 1×N arrays of optical waveguides and the device common port.

11. A dual-ganged optical switch for controlling the connection between a selected optical transmit/receive channel of a plurality of channels and an optical communication device common port comprising a receive/transmit optical waveguide pair, the dual-ganged optical switch comprising:

an optical waveguiding array structure oriented in an x-y plane and including a two-dimensional array of a plurality of receive optical waveguides disposed along both an x-direction dimension and a y-direction dimension and a two-dimensional array of a plurality of transmit optical waveguides disposed along both the x-direction dimension and the y-direction dimension and disposed in an adjacent configuration to the two-dimensional array of a plurality of receive optical waveguides, with adjacent receive and transmit optical waveguides defining an optical channel, the optical waveguiding array structure further comprising a device common port structure comprising a plurality of device transmit optical waveguides disposed below and aligned with the two-dimensional array of the plurality of receive optical waveguides and a plurality of device receive optical waveguides disposed below and aligned with the two-dimensional array of the plurality of transmit optical waveguides;

a biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element providing simultaneous left-right (y-axis) and top-bottom (x-axis) optical signal redirection within the x-y plane, the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element disposed to couple optical signals between a selected optical channel and a selected device common port such that an optical signal propagating along the array receive optical signal path of the selected optical channel is redirected in the device received signal path and an optical signal propagating along the device transmit signal path is redirected into the array transmit signal path of the selected optical channel; and

a collimating lens disposed in an optical signal path between the optical waveguiding structure and the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element, wherein switching between optical channels coupled to the common port is controlled by rotating the biaxially-symmetric optical signal in both the x-direction and the y-direction so as to change the array pair of signal paths that intercept the redirection element while also maintaining coupling with the device common port, providing dual-ganged switching of the transmit and receive signal paths.

12. A method of switching between channels of a dual-ganged optical switch comprising an optical array structure including a 1×N array of receive optical waveguides and a 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides, the 1×N arrays of optical waveguides disposed in a symmetric relationship, with a selected pair of receive and transmit optical waveguides defining an optical channel, the optical waveguiding array structure further comprising a common port including a device transmit optical waveguide and a device receive optical waveguide, wherein a biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element is used to couple a selected optical channel with the common port by providing optical signal redirection therebetween, the method including the steps of:

upon receiving a control message to switch communication with the common port from a first channel to a second channel, rotating the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element with respect to an optical system y-axis to translate optical signal origination and termination locations along an x-axis direction of the optical system to a position beyond the optical array structure;

rotating the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element with respect to the optical system x-axis to translate optical signal origination and termination locations along the y-axis direction by an amount associated with a physical separation between the first and second channels; and

rotating the optical signal redirection element with respect to the optical system y-axis to translate optical signal original and termination locations along the x-axis direction to align the selected second channel receive and transmit optical signal paths with the device common port.

13. The method as defined in claim 12 , wherein coupling between non-selected transmit and receive signal paths is reduced by setting a position of the device common port with respect to the receive and transmit signal paths.

14. A multicast optical switching system for providing communication between a plurality of N transponders, a plurality of N 1×N optical splitters for receiving a plurality of N separate receive optical signals and a plurality of N ×1 optical combiners for transmitting a plurality of N separate transmit optical signals, the multicast optical switching system including a plurality of N dual-ganged optical switches, each dual-ganged optical switch associated with a transponder in a one-to-one relationship, each dual-ganged optical switch comprising

an optical waveguiding structure oriented in an x-y plane and including a 1×N array of receive optical waveguides disposed along a y-direction in the x-y plane and a 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides disposed adjacent to the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides such that each transmit optical waveguide is aligned in an x-direction with a separate one of receive optical waveguides, with each adjacent pair of receive and transmit optical waveguides defining an optical channel, the optical waveguiding structure further comprising a device common port including a device transmit optical waveguide disposed in y-direction alignment with the 1×N array of receive optical waveguides and a device receive optical waveguide disposed adjacent to the device transmit optical waveguide and in y-direction alignment with the 1×N array of transmit optical waveguides;

a biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element providing simultaneous left-right (y-axis) and top-down (x-axis) optical signal redirection within the x-y plane, the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element disposed to couple optical signals between a selected optical channel and the device common port such that an optical signal propagating along a receive optical waveguide of the selected optical channel is redirected in the device receive optical waveguide of the common port and an optical signal exiting the common port along the device transmit optical waveguide is redirected into a transmit optical waveguide of the selected optical channel; and

a collimating lens disposed in an optical signal path between the optical waveguiding structure and the optical signal redirection element, wherein switching between optical channels coupled to the common port is controlled by reorienting the biaxially-symmetric optical signal redirection element in both the x-direction and the y-direction so as to change the selected optical channel that intercepts the redirection element while also maintaining coupling with the device common port, providing dual-ganged switching of the transmit and receive signal paths.