Patent · US Expired

Optical switching and routing system

US5771320A · kind A · utility

194Cited by
11References
34Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateOct 21, 1996
Grant dateJun 23, 1998
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 21, 2016

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04Q2011/0049
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

The present invention provides a free space optical switching and routing system utilizing a switchable grating based approach together with novel noise suppression techniques. This family of devices provides for an optical switching and routing system that is useful for interconnecting any of an input array's optical channels to any of an output array's optical channels. The incorporation of free space switched grating based routing in the present invention has several distinct advantages including compactness, a reduction in insertion loss and the number of required switching devices and control signals, and improvements in switch isolation, noise and crosstalk suppression, spurious reflections, data skew, and compactness.

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