FAST OPTICAL SWITCH FOR MULTIMODE FIBER OPTIC BASED CONTROL SYSTEMS

MULTIMODE FIBER OPTIC SENSORS, ACTUATORS, CONTROL SYSTEMS, AND COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS ARE SPECIFIED FOR USE IN ADVANCEDAIRCRAFT CONTROL SYSTEMS. OPTICAL SWITCHES WILL BE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THESE CONTROL SYSTEMS. THESE SWITCHES WILLDIRECT OPTICAL SIGNALS TO AND FROM CONTROL SYSTEM NODES AND MULTIPLEX ARRAYS OF SENSORS AND ACTUATORS TO ELECTRO-OPTIC INTERFACES. PRESENTLY AVAILABLE OPTICAL SWITCHES THAT ARE COMPATIBLE WITH MULTIMODE FIBER OPTICS ARE LIMITED IN SWITCHING SPEED TO APPROXIMATELY 10 MS. THIS PROPOSAL DESCRIBES A DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR A FAST OPTICAL SWITCH COMPATIBLE WITH MULTIMODE FIBER OPTICS. THE PROPOSED OPTICAL SWITCH WILL HAVE AN ACTIVATION TIME OF LESS THAN 1 MICRO-SECOND. THIS SWITCH WILL SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASE THE BANDWIDTH CAPABILITY OF ADVANCED AIRCRAFT CONTROL SYSTEMS USING MULTIMODE OPTICAL FIBERS. THE PHASE I EFFORT WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF THE OPTICAL SWITCHING TECHNIQUE THROUGH LABORATORY EXPERIMENTATION. A TWO CRYSTAL OPTICAL-SINGLE-POLE-DOUBLE-THROW SWITCH WILL BE DESIGNED, FABRICATED, AND EVALUATED DURING THE PHASE I PROGRAM.