Apparatus and method to use a tapered fiber bundle in a free space optical communication system

US6542675B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• Terabeam Corporation · US

Inventors

• Gerald E. Tourgee · Madison, US
• Pierre Robert Barbier · Sammamish, US
• David L. Rollins · Hawthorne, US
• Timothy Alan Sochor · Middletown, US
• John Robinson · Great Meadows, US

Key dates

• Filing date: May 2, 2001
• Grant date: Apr 1, 2003
• Expiry date: May 24, 2021

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G02B6/2552
• WIPO field: Optics
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

An apparatus and method implements a first plurality of single-mode optical fibers into which to inject wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical signals. A tapered fiber bundle (TFB) is coupled to the first plurality of single-mode optical fibers, with the TFB including a second plurality of fused single-mode optical fibers correspondingly coupled to the first plurality of single-mode optical fibers at a first end of the TFB. The second plurality of fused single-mode optical fibers are capable to receive the WDM optical signals from the first plurality of single-mode optical fibers at the first end and to provide the WDM optical signals to a free space optical communication path at a second end.