Optical switch with co-axial alignment beam

A method and system for creating and co-aligning a first array of optical beams with a second array of optical beams. In a preferred application the invention is used in a cross connect optical switch. A first set of alignment beams are created and added to and aligned co-axially with each of the first set of parallel collimated cross-connect communication beams. A second set of alignment beams are created and added to and aligned co-axially with each of the second set of parallel collimated cross-connect communication beams. A preferred embodiment includes an injection unit with a "point" infrared light source such as a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) operating in the near infrared at 850 nm and having a divergence of about 30 degrees. The beam from this source is collimated with collimator optics to produce a collimated beam with a cross sectional dimension of about 16 millimeter×16 millimeters. This collimated beam is separated into 128 separate beams with a mask having 128 0.6 mm diameter apertures that are positioned to align the 128 separate parallel beams with the communication beams from a fiber bundle.