JPH09243841A - Optical junction block - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) An object of the present invention is to provide a compact optical junction block capable of branching a large number of optical fibers in arbitrary directions. SOLUTION: A plurality of optical waveguides 12 are arranged so as to intersect each other in a plane or three-dimensionally, and locking means 15 for locking a total reflection mirror 16 or a half mirror 17 is provided at an intersection 14 of the optical waveguides 12. An optical junction block characterized by that.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an optical junction block suitable for an optical LAN system used for arranging various electrical equipment inside a vehicle.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, an optical LAN system using an optical fiber cable having an excellent transmission capacity has been used for arranging various electric equipments in a vehicle with the progress of electrification of a vehicle. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, inside the automobile 100, an optical LAN system 101 is constructed by connecting various transmission devices 103 with an optical fiber 102.

On the other hand, the vehicle 100 has different equipment in the vehicle depending on the type and grade of the vehicle, and the wiring pattern of the optical fiber 102 of the optical LAN system 101 is also changed to accommodate this. At that time, it is preferable to be able to deal with more diverse wiring patterns, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 60-191206.
The publication discloses that the circuit element 110 as shown in FIG. 6 is used in an appropriate combination according to the distribution portion (reference numeral 104 in FIG. 5) of the wiring pattern. This circuit element 110 includes a single optical waveguide 11 inside a thick plate substrate.
A substantially Y-shaped waveguide pattern branched into one or two branched optical waveguides 112 is formed, and a desired distribution circuit can be formed by three-dimensionally combining a plurality of these waveguide patterns as one unit. it can.

[0004]

However, in the optical LAN system 101 of the automobile 100, a large number of optical fibers 1 are provided due to the arrangement of the optical fibers 102.
02 may branch and merge at one place. When a distribution circuit is formed by using the above-described circuit element 110 in a portion where a large number of optical fibers 102 are distributed as described above, a large number of circuit elements 110 are concentrated, and as a result, the volume of the distribution portion becomes large and mounting is performed. This will hinder the design, including the need to change parts. Further, in the above-described circuit element 110, since the waveguides 111 and 112 extend in the straight direction, the extraction direction of the optical signal is restricted, and the applicable distribution circuit is limited.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an optical junction block which is small in size and capable of branching a large number of optical fibers in arbitrary directions.

[0006]

The above object of the present invention is to achieve the above object.
An optical junction block characterized in that a plurality of optical waveguides are arranged so as to intersect each other in a plane or three-dimensionally, and locking means for locking a light reflecting means is provided at an intersection of the optical waveguides. You can With the above configuration, a desired distribution circuit can be easily formed only by changing the locking position of the reflecting means. Moreover, since it can be configured with a single optical junction block, it is also advantageous in terms of space factor.

[0007]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of an optical junction block according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 is a sectional view of an optical junction block according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the optical junction block, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of an optical distribution circuit, and FIG. 4 is an optical diagram for realizing the optical distribution circuit of FIG. It is sectional drawing of the optical junction block which has arrange | positioned the reflection means.

As shown in FIG. 1, the optical junction block 1 of the present invention has a plurality of optical waveguides 12 arranged in a substrate 11 so as to intersect each other in a lattice pattern on a plane.
Each optical waveguide 12 penetrates through the substrate 11, and input / output ports 13A to 13P for connecting optical fibers (not shown) are provided at both ends. All the intersections 14 of each optical waveguide 12 are provided with cross-shaped slits 15 that are locking means that intersect the intersections 14 at an angle of 45 °. The slit 15 is formed to a depth reaching the bottom of the optical waveguide 12 from the upper surface of the substrate 11 as shown in FIG.

Then, the desired distribution circuit can be completed by inserting and locking the light reflecting means 16 and 17 in the proper positions of the slit 15. In the present invention, the light reflecting means means a total reflection mirror and a half mirror, which are selected and used according to a distribution circuit. Here, the half mirror is a mirror having a function of reflecting a part of incident light and transmitting the remaining light. In the following description, the total reflection mirror is represented by reference numeral 16 and the half mirror is represented by reference numeral 17. The procedure for inserting the light reflecting means 16 and 17 will be described below by taking the case of forming the distribution circuit 20 as shown in FIG. 3 as an example.

In the distribution circuit 20, the optical signal input from the input port A is output from the output ports E, K, L and O (hereinafter referred to as path 1), and the optical signal input from the input port B is output. Output from ports F and N (hereinafter, route 2
And the optical signal input from the input port H is output from the output ports C, D, and J (hereinafter, referred to as path 3). Here, each input port A, B, H
Correspond to the input / output ports 13A, 13B, 13H of the optical junction block 1 shown in FIG. 1, and the output ports C, D, E, F, J, K, L respectively correspond to the input / output ports 13C, 13D. , 13E, 13F, 13J,
It corresponds to 13K and 13L.

To form the path 1 of the distribution circuit 20 as described above, first, as shown in FIG. 4, at the intersection a between the input / output port 13A and the input / output port 13P of the optical junction block 1 shown in FIG. The half mirror 17a is slanted downward to the right in the figure and inserted, and locked. In the following description, the intersection of the input / output ports is displayed according to the coordinate notation. For example, the intersection a between the input / output port 13A and the input / output port 13P is represented by the intersection (13A, 13P). As a result, a part of the optical signal is reflected by the half mirror 17a toward the input / output port 13E, and a part of the optical signal is transmitted and goes straight to the input / output port 13L. Next, at the intersection (13A, 13O), the half mirror 17b
Insert and lock by tilting to the right in the figure. As a result, a part of the optical signal is reflected by the half mirror 17b toward the input / output port 13O, and a part of the optical signal is transmitted and goes straight to the input / output port 13L. Then, at the intersection (13
A half mirror 17c is inserted and locked in (A, 13M) while tilting downward to the right in the figure. As a result, part of the optical signal is reflected by the half mirror 17bc toward the input / output port 13H, and part of the optical signal is transmitted to the input / output port 13L.
It goes straight to and is output from the input / output port 13L. Then, the total reflection mirror 16a is provided at the intersection (13B, 13M).
Insert and lock by tilting downward to the right in the figure. As a result, the optical signal reflected by the half mirror 17c is reflected and output from the input / output port 13K. By the above, the path 1 shown in FIG. 3 is formed.

By the same procedure, the route 2 shown in FIG.
And the path 3 can be formed. That is, route 2
As shown in FIG. 4, the half mirror 17d is moved downward to the right at the intersection (13B, 13O), and the intersection (13B, 13O)
13N), the total reflection mirror 16a is inserted in the upper right direction in the figure,
It is formed by locking. As a result, the optical signal input from the input / output port 13B is partially reflected by the half mirror 17d and output from the input / output port 13F, and at the same time, partially transmitted and reflected by the total reflection mirror 16a. It is output from the output port 13N.

In the path 3, as shown in FIG. 4, the total reflection mirror 16c is located at the intersection (13C, 13N) in the lower right direction in the figure, and the total reflection mirror 16 is located at the intersection (13C, 13M).
d to the upper right in the figure, the half mirror 17e to the intersection (13D, 13N) to the lower right in the figure, and the intersection (13D, 1N).
3M) is formed by inserting and locking the half mirror 17f in the lower right direction in the figure. This allows input / output port 1
The optical signal input from 3H partially passes through the half mirror 17f, is then reflected by the total reflection mirror 16d, and is output from the input / output port 13J. At the same time, part of the optical signal reflected by the half mirror 17f is further transmitted through the half mirror 17e and output from the input / output port 13D, and the optical signal reflected by the half mirror 17e is reflected by the total reflection mirror 16c. I / O port 1 after being reflected
It is output from 3C. As described above, the distribution circuit 20 shown in FIG. 3 is formed by inserting and locking the total reflection mirror 16 and the half mirror 17 which are the light reflection means in the optical junction block 1 as shown in FIG. You can

[0014]

As described above, according to the optical junction block of the present invention, by inserting and locking the total reflection mirror or the half mirror, which is the light reflecting means, in the proper place of the slit, a desired optical signal can be obtained. It can be branched in any direction, and various distribution circuits can be easily formed. Moreover, since it can be configured with a single optical junction block, it is also advantageous in terms of space factor.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an optical junction block according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of an optical junction block.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a light distribution circuit.

4 is a cross-sectional view of an optical junction block in which light reflecting means is arranged to realize the light distribution circuit of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a general automobile optical LAN system.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an optical junction block (circuit element) according to a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Optical Junction Block 11 Substrate 12 Optical Waveguide 14 Intersection 15 Slit 16, 16a to 16d Total Reflection Mirror 17, 17a to 17f Half Mirror

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An optical junction, wherein a plurality of optical waveguides are arranged so as to intersect each other two-dimensionally or three-dimensionally, and locking means for locking the light reflecting means is provided at the intersection of the optical waveguides. block.