Patent · US Expired

Dispersion-compensated optical wavelength router

US6690846B2 · kind B2 · utility

9Cited by
5References
79Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 1, 2001
Grant dateFeb 10, 2004
Priority date
Expiry dateNov 17, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04J14/06
  • WIPO fieldOptics
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

An optical wavelength router separates an input signal into two complementary output signals. A beamsplitter of the wavelength router separates the input signal into a first beam and a second beam. A first resonator reflects the first beam producing a group delay that is dependent on wavelength. Similarly, a second resonator reflects the second beam. The center wavelength of the second resonator is offset relative to that of the first resonator by one half of the free spectral range of the first resonator, so that the resonance frequencies of the second resonator are matched to the anti-resonance frequencies of the first resonator. The beams reflected by the resonators interfere within the beamsplitter to produce two output signals containing complementary subsets of the spectrum of the input signal (e.g., even optical channels are routed to a first output port and the odd optical channels are routed to a second output port).

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