Patent · US Expired

Interferometric fibre optic network

US5071214A · kind A · utility

11Cited by
10References
9Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJan 10, 1991
Grant dateDec 10, 1991
Priority date
Expiry dateJan 10, 2011

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02B6/2821
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An interferometric fibre optic network includes a downlead optical fibre (12) and a pair of uplead optical fibres (14, 16). Sites for a plurality of interferometric sensor pairs (25) are arranged whereby each pair (25) is optically connected in use of the network to the downlead and uplead fibers (12, 14, 16) via a 3.times.3 fibre optic coupler (30) and respective further fibre optic couplers (32) on the uplead fibres (14, 16). The uplead fibres (14, 16) are multimode optical fibres, and each of the 3.times.3 couplers (30) is optically connected to the respective further couplers (32) by a single mode optical fibre (34). The further couplers (32) are asymmetric couplers having high tap-on coupling from the single mode optical fibre (34) to the respective uplead fibre (14, 16) but low tap-off coupling from the uplead fibre (14, 16).

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.