Branch component comprising optical light waveguides

US4306765A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• Siemens Aktiengesellschaft · DE

Inventors

• Gerhard Winzer · Munich, DE
• Hans Mahlein · Unterhaching, DE
• Achim Reichelt · Unterhaching, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Mar 3, 1980
• Grant date: Dec 22, 1981
• Expiry date: Mar 3, 2000

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S359/90
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A branch component and method of making the component which can be used either to distribute light from a single waveguide into four outgoing waveguides or to collect light from four incoming waveguides into a single outgoing waveguide. The component includes seven waveguides and at least three partially transmissive reflective layers disposed on the surface of a carrier with the first, second and third waveguides being arranged in a longitudinally extending first series, the fourth and fifth waveguides being arranged in a longitudinally extending second series extending perpendicular to the first series and a first reflective layer separating the first and fourth waveguides from the second waveguide, a second reflective layer separating the second and a sixth waveguide from a third waveguide and a third reflective layer separating the fourth and seventh waveguides from the fifth waveguide and the second and third reflective layer lying on a plane which extends perpendicular to a plane formed by the first reflective layer.