Corning Incorporated

General Instrument Corporation

Avanex Corporation

Edward F Murphy

Douglas W Hall

Nicholas Francis Borrelli

David R Huber

Venkata Adiseshaiah Bhagavatula

Dipakbin Qasem Chowdhury

Todd Marshall Wetherill

Monica K Davis

Gregory F Jacobs

Alexander Mikhailovich Streltsov

Peter Gerard Wigley

Michelle Dawn Fabian

Vikram Bhatia

Mark Francis Krol

Ching-Kee Chien

Lung-Ming Wu

David Kinney Smith

Huan-Hung Sheng

A Joseph Antos

Michael G Blankenship

Paul Anthony Jakobson

Robert W Hallock

Joseph F Schroeder

Felton Aaron Flood

Razvigor Ossikovski

James Micheal Harris

Donald J Sobiski

David Jacob

Derek E Spock

Jody T Bliss

Andrew David Robinson

John Eugene Brarens

An apparatus and method for making n different types of optical amplifiers on one manufacturing line, n being equal to 2 or more. The method includes providing a supply of at least four functional groups of subunits for each of the circuits which comprise each of the optical amplifiers to be made, where at least one functional group contains at least n different types of sub-units, and where each of the sub-units in three of the functional groups includes a pluggable optical connector half and where each of the sub-units of the fourth of the functional groups includes three pluggable optical connector halves. The method further includes selecting a specific sub-unit from each of the four functional groups and plugging together each of the selected subunits to form an optical amplifier having the desired specification.

Apparatus and method for making an optical fiber amplifier

The invention provides a method of making optical fiber devices. The method includes providing an ultrashort subpicosecond laser pulse duration pulse laser for producing a laser output with a wavelength &lgr;, providing a laser output focussing lens having an air working distance &gE;3 mm and a &lE;1 NA numerical aperture for focussing said laser output, providing a controllable positioning translation stage for receiving an optical fiber device oxide bulk glass body, providing an optical fiber device oxide bulk glass body having a transparency at &lgr; of at least 90%/cm, positioning said oxide bulk glass body with said stage wherein said glass body is received by said stage, focussing said laser output through said laser output focussing lens to produce a subpicosecond laser pulse duration focus proximate the oxide bulk glass body and translating the oxide bulk glass body relative to said subpicosecond laser pulse duration focus wherein said focus traces a hole precursor track pattern through the oxide bulk glass body, acid etching the oxide bulk glass body in an agitated heated acid bath wherein the focussed traced hole precursor track pattern is etched into an optical fiber receiving hole, cleansing the acid etched oxide bulk glass body with the etched optical fiber receiving hole, and inserting an optical fiber into the optical fiber receiving hole to provide a hole contained optical fiber.

Method of making optical fiber devices and devices thereof

The present invention provides photonic devices utilized in optical telecommunications. The photonic devices include photosensitive bulk glass bodies which contain Bragg gratings, particularly with the ultraviolet photosensitive bulk glass bodies directing optical telecommunications wavelength range bands. Preferably the ultraviolet photosensitive bulk glass bodies are batch meltable alkali boro-alumino-silicate bulk glass bodies. One embodiment of the invention relates to an optical element including a transparent photosensitive bulk glass having formed therein a non-waveguiding Bragg grating; and a optical element optical surface for manipulating light. Desirably, the photosensitive bulk glass has a 250 nm absorption less than 10 dB/cm.

Bulk internal Bragg gratings and optical devices

A polarization mode dispersion compensator corrects polarization mode dispersion in an optical signal having a fast polarization mode component, a slow polarization mode component and a time differential between the components. The compensator includes a phase shifter and a variable delay section. An input of the phase shifter is coupled to an optical device that provides an optical signal that exhibits polarization mode dispersion. The phase shifter functions to rotate the optical signal principal states of polarization to a desired orientation. The phase shifter engages a segment of an optical fiber that is coated with a radiation cured coatings. The coating composition is selected so that in response to a preload comprising the application of a stress of about 80 MPa to said coating at about 80&deg; C. and after a stress-relaxation period of at least about 1 hour, at about 80&deg; C., a residual stress exhibited by said coating comprises at least about 60 MPa, and the coating is capable of transmitting a transverse stress to the fiber to controllably change the birefringence of the fiber.

All fiber polarization mode dispersion compensator

A polarization mode dispersion compensator corrects polarization mode dispersion in an optical signal having a fast polarization mode component, a slow polarization mode component and a time differential between the components. The compensator includes a phase shifter and a variable delay section. An input of the phase shifter is coupled to an optical device that provides an optical signal that exhibits polarization mode dispersion. The phase shifter functions to rotate the optical signal principal states of polarization to a desired orientation. The variable delay section includes an input, an output and at least one optical fiber delay line. The input of the variable delay section is coupled to the output of the phase shifter and the desired orientation of the optical signal principal states of polarization are substantially rotated to be in alignment with one of a fast axis and a slow axis of each of the one or more fiber delay lines. In this manner, the variable delay section functions to delay the principal states of polarization of the optical signal with respect to one another as a function of whether the principal states of polarization traverse said one of a fast axis and a slow axis of the at least one optical fiber delay line, thus reducing the time differential between the components.

Methods and apparatus for combining, adding, and/or dropping channels in optical communication systems that utilize thin film filters without the creation of deadbands, using fiber Bragg gratings and additional thin film optical filters, are described. According to one aspect of the invention, an optical filter is used to drop a wavelength range from an optical signal. Prior to the optical signal entering the optical filter, one or more fiber Bragg gratings and an optical circulator are used reflects a portion of the communications spectrum which would normally lie with the deadband region of the optical filter. According to another aspect of the present invention, an optical filter is used to combine a first optical signal and a second optical signal to form a combined optical signal. Neither the first optical signal nor the second optical signal includes channels within a deadband region of the optical filter. One or more fiber Bragg gratings and an optical circulator or a coupler are used to add a third optical signal to the combined optical signal. The third optical signal includes signal wavelengths within the deadband region of the optical filter.

Methods and apparatus for preventing deadbands in an optical communication system

The present invention provides photonic devices utilized in optical telecommunications. The photonic devices include photosensitive bulk glass bodies which contain Bragg gratings, particularly with the ultraviolet photosensitive bulk glass bodies directing optical telecommunications wavelength range bands. Preferably the ultraviolet photosensitive bulk glass bodies are batch meltable alkali boro-alumino-silicate bulk glass bodies. The invention includes an optical communications wavelength device for use with wavelength range bands, with the device comprising an input optical waveguide collimator for collimating an input light beam out of an optical waveguide to provide an unguided input light beam including at least one reflective wavelength range band &lgr; and at least one wavelengths range band &lgr; ; an internal bulk Bragg grating including a transparent photosensitive bulk optical grating medium with an internal modulated refractive index grating with a grating pattern for reflecting the at least one wavelength range band &lgr; ; at least one output coupler for outputting an at least one output wavelength range band; and a substrate structure for securing said bulk Bragg grating relative to the input collimator and the output coupler, with the bulk Bragg grating disposed in the unguided input light beam wherein the at least one wavelengths range band &lgr; is transmitted through the bulk Bragg grating and the at least one wavelength range band &lgr; is reflected by the bulk Bragg grating.

Bulk internal bragg gratings and optical devices

A detachable plug-in pump laser card assembly for placement into an optical fiber amplifier, comprising: a printed circuit board, a heat sink, a pump laser, a first half plug-in member of an optical connector, a second half plug-in member of an electrical connector and a reel having an optical fiber wrapped there around. The heat sink is substantially parallel to the printed circuit board and is separated from the printed circuit board by spacers. The pump laser is connected to one side of the heat sink, which has a plurality of fins on an opposite side from where the pump laser is connected. The first half plug-in member of the optical connector and the second half plug-in member of the electrical connector are each secured to the printed circuit board and are located at an insertion end of the pump laser card assembly. The reel is disposed between the printed circuit board and the heat sink and the optical fiber wrapped around the reel has a first end connected to the pump laser and a second end connected to the first half plug-in member of the optical connector. The detachable plug-in pump laser card assembly is plugged into a port located on a base plate of the optical fiber amplifier, where the first half plug-in member of the optical connector optically engages with a mating member and where the second half plug-in member of the electrical connector electrically engages with a mating member.

Detachable plug-in pump card assembly

A multichannel fiber optic communication network incorporates multichannel fiber optical amplifiers having different functions but designed to use substantially identical gain flattening filters. This is achieved by designing the amplifiers to have total insertion losses such that their respective internal gains (internal gain=net gain+total insertion loss) are substantially the same, most preferably within 1 dB.

Optical amplifier designs for multichannel fiber optic communication

A method of measuring the polarization mode dispersion of a chromatic dispersion compensating optical waveguide device is provided. A force is applied multiple times to the spool flanges of a chromatic dispersion compensating optical waveguide device in order to obtain a plurality of polarization mode dispersion values which have a distribution characteristic of a Maxwellian distribution and provide a mean polarization mode dispersion value for the optical waveguide device.

Method of measuring the polarization mode dispersion of an optical

Disclosed is a family of dispersion compensating optical fibers that are adapted for use with conventional single-mode transmission fibers that are optimized for zero dispersion operation at a wavelength in the range from 1290 nm to 1330 nm to form a transmission link suitable for low dispersion operation in the 1520-1565 nm wavelength window. The dispersion compensating fibers are capable of providing a dispersion more negative than -20 ps/nm-km and attenuation less than 1 dB/km at wavelengths in the 1520-1565 nm region. Certain of the dispersion compensating fibers also exhibit a dispersion versus wavelength relationship having a negative slope in the 1520-1565 nm region, to compensate for the dispersion versus wavelength slope of the transmission fiber. The dispersion compensating fiber can be advantageously combined with a fiber amplifier to form a compensator that is adapted to overcome attenuation introduced into the system by the dispersion compensating fiber. In one embodiment, the dispersion compensating fiber is also a distributed fiber amplifier.

Dispersion compensating devices and systems

The use of a doped optical fiber amplifier enables the transmission of multi-channel AM-VSB television signals. An Erbium doped fiber amplifier is disclosed. The amplifier is also useful for reducing second order distortion products produced in an amplitude modulated subcarrier optical communication system. The amplifier may be used in a tree and branch structure optical fiber television network.

Growing community of inventors

Painted Post, NY, United States of America

Edward F Murphy