Patent · US Expired

Demultiplexer device for wavelength-division multiplexed optical fiber communication

US6115156A · kind A · utility

18Cited by
1References
4Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateNov 5, 1997
Grant dateSep 5, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 5, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B2210/258
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A demultiplexer device is used in a wavelength-division multiplexed optical fiber communication line to achieve efficient dispersion compensation and loss compensation as well as a reduction of active devices such as optical amplifiers. The demultiplexer device has a series of couplers disposed in multi-stages from the input of the demultiplexer. Each coupler has two branches with one branch of each coupler connected to a separate optical filter and the other branches are series connected to a subsequent stage of the couplers through equalizing fibers, except for the final stage which has its second branch connected to an optical filter for the shortest wavelength transmitted. The equalizing fibers are thus serially connected between couplers and act to perform a cumulative dispersion compensation. The quantity of the equalizing fibers can thus be reduced as a whole, and as a result the attenuation amount also decreases, so that the number of optical amplifiers can be reduced.

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