Aspects of the present disclosure describe large scale steerable optical switched arrays that may be fabricated on a common substrate including many thousands or more emitters that may be arranged in a curved pattern at the focal plane of a lens thereby allowing the directional control of emitted light and selective reception of reflected light suitable for use in imaging, ranging, and sensing applications including accident avoidance.

An on-chip optical switch based on an echelle grating and a phase tuning element is described herein. The phase tuning element may change a refractive index of the material through which an optical signal propagates, thereby causing a change in the angle of propagation of the optical signal. By dynamically tuning the phase change element, the refractive index change may be controlled such that the deviation of the optical signal causes the optical signal to be focused on a particular coupling waveguide out of an array of coupling waveguides. The echelle grating with the active phase change element form a configurable optical switch capable of switching an optical signal between two or more coupling waveguides, that may be respectively connected to different optical signal processing pathways.

An optical cable includes a single optical connector configured for insertion into an optical receptacle so as to receive optical signals at a plurality of different wavelengths from the optical receptacle, and multiple electrical connectors, configured for insertion into respective electrical receptacles. Each electrical connector includes a transceiver configured to convert the optical signals into electrical output signals for output to an electrical receptacle. The optical cable further includes a plurality of optical fibers, having respective first ends connected together to the single optical connector so as to receive the optical signals. Each of the optical fibers has a respective second end coupled to a respective one of the electrical connectors. Wavelength selection optics are associated with the optical fibers so that the transceiver in each of the electrical connectors receives the optical signals at a different, respective one of the wavelengths.

An optical switch is proposed, for routing an optical transmission signal according to an optical control signal, including one or more optical control ports; three or more optical transmission ports; a light director; and a thermally driven light mill; where the light mill and the light director are arranged with respect to each other, to the one or more control ports and to the three or more transmission ports such that: illumination of a respective one of the one or more control ports by a control beam carrying the control signal drives the light mill to rotate towards a respective position in which the light director is arranged so as to direct a transmission beam carrying the transmission signal, entering the switch via a respective one of the transmission ports, to exit the switch via a respective other of the transmission ports.

The laser-induced dispensing system includes a cartridge assembly having a supply reel for supplying a foil having a light transmissive layer wound around the supply reel, and a take-up reel for taking up the foil. There is provided a coating device for coating the foil by a donor material during a motion of the foil. The laser-induced dispensing system also includes an irradiation head having optics configured for focusing a laser beam. Additionally, a controller, for controlling the cartridge assembly to establish motion of the foil, and the optics to focus the laser beam onto the foil at a location downstream of the outlet of the coating device so as to release droplets of the donor material from the foil is provided.

Integrated optical component combine the functions of a Variable Optical Attenuator (VOA), a tap coupler, and a photo-detector, reducing the size, cost, and complexity of these functions. In other embodiments, the integrated optical component combines the functions of an optical switch, a tap coupler, and a photo-detector. A rotatable mirror is used to adjust the coupling of light from an input port or ports to one or more output ports. A pin hole with a surrounding reflective surface is used at the core end face of one or more output fibers, such that a portion of the output optical signal is reflected to a photodiode chip. The photo-detector provides an indication of the optical power that is being coupled to the output fiber. With appropriate electronic control circuitry, the integrated optical component can be used to set the output optical power at a desired or required level.

A core selective switch in an optical node device included in a spatial channel optical network includes a spatial demultiplexing unit, an optical switch, and an optical interconnect unit, wherein the spatial demultiplexing unit is an MCF collimator array in which a plurality of MCF collimators each comprising both an MCF having S cores and a collimator lens are two-dimensionally arranged in a plane, the optical switch is a variable reflection angle mirror array in which S variable reflection angle mirrors are two-dimensionally arranged in a plane in a manner similar to a core arrangement in the MCF, the optical interconnect unit is a steering lens, and a beam light output from each core of an input MCF is focused on a variable reflection angle mirror corresponding to the core to be reflected to couple to a corresponding core of a desired output MCF.

A method for implementing folding M×N wavelength selective switch is provided. A one-dimensional single-mode fiber optic collimator array, a short-focus cylindrical mirror, a first long-focus cylindrical mirror, a retroreflector, a transmission phase diffraction grating, a second long-focus cylindrical mirror, a liquid crystal spatial light modulator, and a liquid crystal graphic loading control system are provided along beam transmission direction. The same set of optical elements is used for incident light and outgoing light by ingenious folding structure. The input port and output port of optical signal are consistent in spatial arrangement, thereby reducing space and improving port utilization. Based on composite liquid crystal chips, a working area of the liquid crystal spatial light modulator is doubled, and a quantity of accommodating ports is greatly increased. A quantity of M×N ports of the WSS can be increased greatly by the above structure and design.

A wavelength selective switch (WSS) includes a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) panel and a fiber array with multiple ports. The two outermost ports of the multiple ports are a first port and a second port. An included angle between an intersecting line of the LCOS panel and a first plane in which the incident light entering the LCOS panel and emergent light exiting the LCOS panel are located, and incident light entering the LCOS panel is (90−θ) degrees, where a wavelength of the incident light is same as a wavelength of the emergent light, θ is less than 15 degrees, the first port and the included angle of (90−θ) degrees are located on a same side of the incident light, and the second port and the included angle of (90−θ) degrees are separately located on two sides of the incident light.

Disclosed herein are configurations for fiber optic endoscopes employing fixed distal optics and multicore optical fiber.