Reconfigurable free space wavelength cross connect
US6694073B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 11, 2002 |
| Grant date | Feb 17, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Apr 11, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04Q2011/0052
- WIPO fieldOptics
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An optical cross connect, especially a wavelength cross connect, using free-space optics, a diffraction grating, and a micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) array of movable mirrors. A concentrator receives light from widely separated optical fibers and brings the beams together into a more closely spaced linear array. Free-space optics process all the beams. Front-end optics collimate the beams from the fibers and flatten their fields. The diffraction grating spectrally separates each beam into sub-beams. A long-focus lens focuses the sub-beams onto the 2-dimensional MEMS array. A fold mirror reflectively couples two such mirrors, whereby the switched signals propagate back through the same optics and are spectrally recombined onto the fibers. Other embodiments include white-color cross connects, multiple MEMS arrays, and parallel optics. Power dividers or wavelength interleavers can divide signals from the fibers, and multiple cross connects switch different wavelength groups.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.