Patent · US Expired

Optical networking assembly

US6415082B1 · kind B1 · utility

32Cited by
4References
34Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventor

Key dates

Filing dateMar 15, 2000
Grant dateJul 2, 2002
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 15, 2020

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02B6/29367
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An optical network assembly includes a planar lightguide circuit (PLC) and a filtering device. A PLC can have at least two optical paths for propagating optical energy. The PLC can be designed to channel optical energy with its optical paths towards the filtering device in order to separate the optical energy into at least two beams, where a first beam can contain a first information channel and a second beam can contain a second information channel. The filtering device can be attached directly to the PLC or it can be attached directly to an optical waveguide that is also connected to the PLC. The optical waveguide can either feed optical energy to or propagate optical energy away from the PLC. Multiple optical waveguides can be attached to a PLC to feed optical energy into and away from the PLC. The PLC, filtering device, and optical waveguide can form the building blocks to more complex optical network architectures.

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