Modular cascaded Mach-Zehnder DWDM components
US5978114A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 29, 1997 |
| Grant date | Nov 2, 1999 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Aug 29, 2017 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04J14/0219
- WIPO fieldTelecommunications
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A multiple channel fiber optic multiplexer, demultiplexer, multiplexer/demultiplexer, and/or add/drop component includes a plurality of Mach-Zehnder interferometer units, each unit including a pair of 50/50 fiber optic couplers connected by a pair of Bragg gratings and three functional ports including two multi-channel input output ports, one single channel input/output port, the Bragg gratings being tuned to a wavelength of the single channel input/output port, and input/output ports of adjacent interferometer units being connected to each other by fusion splices in a cascade configuration, the component including a first common input/output connector on a first of said cascaded interferometer units and a second common input/output connector on a last of said cascaded interferometer units, with the second common input/output connector being arranged to permit the addition of add-on multi-channel components. The cascaded components, which can be uni-directional or bi-directional, can be connected to each other as serial add-on units, or in the case of modular uni-directional components, be used to upgrade existing NWDM systems to DWDM systems having a greater number of channels by …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.