Received: 12 April 2022

DOI: 10.1049/ote2.12076

ORIGINAL RESEARCH
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Revised: 13 June 2022 Accepted: 14 June 2022

- IET Optoelectronics

A 1 £ 48 large‐scale multi‐mode fibre optical switch

Zhentian Shan | Zhujun Wan | Zhixiang Luo

School of Optical and Electronic Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Correspondence
Zhixiang Luo, School of Optical and Electronic
Information, Huazhong University of Science and
Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, China.
Email: zhxluo@hust.edu.cn
Abstract
A 1 � 48 large‐scale multi‐mode fibre (MMF) optical switch driven by a stepper motor is
reported. The insertion loss is <1.42 dB, which can be further reduced to 1.02 dB after
optimisation. With the employment of a corner cube prism in the optics, the device is
characterised by good repeatability of <�0.01 dB. Meanwhile, the device has a fast
response of <8 ms.

1 | INTRODUCTION
Optical interconnect is widely employed in data centres to
meet the demand for high‐speed transmission [1, 2]. With the
scaling up of data centres, WDM (wavelength‐division multi-
plexing) transmission over single‐mode fibre (SMF) is
deployed for long‐reach such as 150–2000 m [3, 4]. However,
for short‐reach such as <150 m, parallel transmission over
multi‐mode fibre (MMF) is still the main approach [5, 6]. Thus
the demand for optical fibre transceivers increases rapidly,
especially for MMF optical transceivers [7].
The optical fibre transceivers need to be tested with variable
specifications during the fabrication process. In order to
improve the test efficiency, 1 � N optical switches are urgently
demanded. For the test of MMF optical transceivers, MMF
optical switches are required. There are variable approaches for
SMF optical switches, such as MEMS, integrated optics, and
liquid crystal [8–14]. However, these technologies cannot be
transplanted to support a large‐scale 1 � N MMF optical switch.
This study reported a 1 � 48 large‐scale MMF optical switch
driven by a stepper motor. A corner cube prism is employed in
the device, which helps to improve the stability of the optical
path.
2 | SWITCH PRINCIPLE
The structure of the 1 � 48 MMF optical switch is shown in
Figure 1 It consists of a step motor, a corner cube prism and
49 optical fibre collimators fixed in a circular metal plate. The
input collimator is centred in the plate, and thus, the input
optical beam is in collineation with the axis of the step motor.
The 48 output collimators are aligned in a circle. The input
optical beam is directed to one of the output collimators after
being reflected by the corner cube prism. When the corner
cube prism is rotated and driven by the step motor, the output
optical beam is also rotated and directed to another output
collimator. Thus, the optical signal is switched between the 48
outputs.
As we know, the coupling efficiency of optical power be-
tween optical fibre collimators is rather sensitive to angular
misalignment [15]. The output optical beam reflected by the
corner cube prism is always parallel to the input optical beam,
even though the prism vibrates when driven by the motor.
Thus the coupling efficiency is quite stable, which enables the
optical switch with good repeatability.
3 | EXPERIMENTS
According to the principle as shown in Figure 1, the optical
and mechanical components are designed and fabricated. Then
the 1 � 48 MMF optical switch was assembled as shown in
Figure 2. All ports are arranged on the left side of the metal
shell. Output ports are arranged on a circumference with the
input port as the centre. The stepper motor and corner cube
are fixed on the right side of the metal shell. The output ports
are adjusted to the lowest loss one by one, then fixed with UV
glue. The specifications of the device were measured as
follows.

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© 2022 The Authors. IET Optoelectronics published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.

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- SHAN ET AL.

3.1 | Insertion loss
The insertion loss (IL) of the device is measured with an
850 nm laser source and a power metre. The results are
summarised in Table 1. The maximum, minimum and average
IL of all ports are 1.42 dB, 1.08 dB and 1.22 dB respectively.
The loss distribution is plotted in Figure 3. The RSD of IL is
6.9%, that is, 0.08 dB and the uniformity can be further
improved with better assembly processes.
The optical beam is reflected by three times in the corner
cube prism. The three reflection surfaces of the corner cube
prism are coated with silver film. The reflectivity is 97% and
thus the loss induced by three reflections is 0.4 dB. If
the reflection surfaces can be coated with dielectric film, and
the IL of the device can be further reduced by 0.4 dB. Thus,
the average and maximum IL can be reduced to 0.82 dB and
1.02 dB respectively.
3.2 | Repeatability
Four output ports are randomly selected for the repeatability
test, as shown in Table 2. The IL of each port is measured by
10 times. The results show a repeatability of less than
�0.01 dB, which verify the benefit of the corner cube prism
for optical stabilisation.
3.3 | Time response

The time response of the optical switch is measured. In order to

obtain the longest response time, the optical signal was switched
from output 1–26, which are the most separated ports. The
measurement is taken using an oscilloscope with a photoelectric
converter. The measuring result is shown in Figure 4. The
response time between the most separated ports is <8 ms.

4 | CONCLUSION

A multi‐mode fibre (MMF) optical switch designed with a

corner cube prism is presented, which is characterised by large‐
scale 1 � 48 ports, good repeatability of <�0.01 dB and fast
FIGURE 1 Structure of the multi‐mode fibre (MMF) optical switch response of <8 ms. The maximum insertion loss is 1.42 dB,

F I G U R E 2 Photos of the multi‐mode fibre (MMF) optical switch,

(a) assembly process and (b) final sample FIGURE 3 Loss distribution of the optical switch

Output 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 TABLE 1 Insertion loss of the optical

switch
IL (dB) 1.08 1.15 1.17 1.11 1.22 1.10 1.23 1.25 1.21 1.20 1.19 1.28

Output 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24

IL (dB) 1.30 1.19 1.21 1.16 1.29 1.25 1.19 1.31 1.34 1.30 1.32 1.42

Output 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

IL (dB) 1.29 1.32 1.34 1.28 1.17 1.22 1.25 1.22 1.29 1.25 1.20 1.15

Output 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48

IL (dB) 1.23 1.21 1.21 1.19 1.16 1.18 1.22 1.19 1.16 1.25 1.14 1.16
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SHAN ET AL.
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TABLE 2 Repeatability test result

Measurement 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
IL of output 1 (dB) 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08 1.08

IL of output 13 (dB) 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.31 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.30 1.30

IL of output 25 (dB) 1.29 1.29 1.30 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.30 1.30 1.29

IL of output 37 (dB) 1.23 1.23 1.23 1.23 1.23 1.23 1.23 1.24 1.23 1.23

FIGURE 4 Time response measuring result

which can be reduced to 1.02 dB if the corner cube prism was R E F E RE N C E S

coated with dielectric film instead of silver film. If the device
was assembled by a skilled operator, the insertion loss is ex-
pected to be further reduced to <0.80 dB.
CON FLIC T OF I N T ER E ST STAT E M EN T
The author declares that there is no conflict of interest that
could be perceived as prejudicing the impartiality of the
research reported.
DATA AVA IL AB I LI T Y S TAT E M EN T
The data that support the findings of this study are available on
request from the corresponding author. The data are not
publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
OR CID
Zhentian Shan https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2780-3308
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How to cite this article: Shan, Z., Wan, Z., Luo, Z.: A
1 � 48 large‐scale multimode fibre optical switch. IET
Optoelectron. 16(6), 253–256 (2022). https://doi.org/
10.1049/ote2.12076