Dicon Fiberoptics, Inc.

Dicon Fiberobtics, Inc.

Alexander Jacob Birman

Ho-Shang Lee

Ying-Yu Su

A tunable optical filter is described, utilizing a diffraction grating and a rotating mirror. By incorporating a phase screen, or the combination of a phase screen and a transmission amplitude-modulated mask, located in front of the rotating mirror, or possibly at other locations in the optical path, the selected wavelength's passband spectrum can be shaped in a variety of ways. In particular, the output spectrum of the tunable optical filter can be made flatter within the passband, while maintaining good isolation of adjacent channels or wavelengths.

Shaping the bandpass spectrum of a tunable filter for optical network applications

A tunable optical filter utilizes a pair of diffraction gratings and a rotating mirror to achieve a broad filter passband or wavelength bandwidth. By adjusting a small angle between the two diffraction gratings, such as less than approximately 15 degrees, the wavelength bandwidth of the tunable optical filter's passband may be arbitrarily adjusted or set. The two-grating system results in a narrower angular dispersion coefficient than could be achieved through the use of a single grating with similar properties. The narrower angular dispersion in turn results in a broader filter passband or wavelength bandwidth.

Tunable optical filter with adjustable bandwidth

In an epitaxial structure of a solid state lighting system, electrical current injection into the active layer is used to excite the photon emission. The present invention employs a unique waveguide layer in the epitaxial structure for trapping the light generated by the active layer in the fundamental waveguide mode. Multiple photonic crystal regions located either outside or inside one or more current injection regions extract photons from the waveguide layer(s). This novel design optimizes the interplay of electrical pumping, radiation and optical extraction to increase the optical output to several times that of conventional LEDs. A transparent and conductive ITO layer is added to the surface of an epitaxial structure to reduce the interface reflection in addition to functioning as a current spreading layer. The present invention creates solid state lighting with high optical output and high power efficiency.

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Oakland, CA, United States of America

Alexander Jacob Birman