Xponent Photonics Inc

California Institute of Technology

Glenair, Inc.

Hoya Corporation USA

Guido Hunziker

Kerry J Vahala

David W Vernooy

Peter C Sercel

Oskar Jon Painter

Henry A Blauvelt

Joel S Paslaski

Ming Cai

Roberto Paiella

Robert B Lee

Paul Bridger

Charles I Grosjean

Mehrdad Ghara

Paul M Bridger

Daniel M Mitchell

John N Nguyen

G W Stewart Clark

Bryan N Samowitz

Samer J Farhat

Stephen D Board

An electrical connector assembly includes a connector body, electrical connector contacts mounted in the connector body, and electrical wire contacts attached to wires of an electrical cable. Rear ends of the connector contacts (either contact pins or sockets) engage front ends of the wire contacts (either contact sockets or pins). A head of each contact pins is wider than its shaft resulting in a protruding edge. Each contact socket receives the corresponding contact pin. At least one resilient retaining member extends obliquely into and at least partly across each contact socket away from its open end and is deflected laterally as the contact pin is inserted into the contact socket. Upon full insertion the retaining member presses laterally against the shaft and a distal edge of the retaining member obstructs withdrawal of the contact pin from the contact socket by engaging the protruding edge.

Multiple-contact electrical connector assembly

An electromagnetic shielding material includes multiple strands of an electrically conductive yarn that are arranged as a braided, knitted, or woven mesh. Each strand of the electrically conductive yarn comprises one or more electrically conductive filaments; each electrically conductive filament comprises a core of a first electrically conductive material surrounded by a sheath of a second electrically conductive material different from the first electrically conductive material. The first electrically conductive material exceeds the second electrically conductive material with respect to electrical conductivity, while the second electrically conductive material exceeds the first electrically conductive material with respect to one or more of tensile strength, corrosion resistance, or one or more other mechanical or chemical properties or characteristics. In many examples, the first electrically conductive material includes copper and the second electrically conductive material includes stainless steel.

Electromagnetically shielding material

Formation of a substantially flat upper cladding surface over a waveguide core facilitates transverse-coupling between assembled waveguides, and/or provides mechanical alignment and/or support. An embedding medium may be employed for securing optical assemblies and protecting optical surfaces thereof. Structural elements fabricated with a low-profile core may be employed for providing mechanical alignment and/or support, aiding in the encapsulation process, and so forth.

Waveguides assembled for transverse-transfer of optical power

A resonant optical modulator comprises a transmission fiber-optic waveguide, a circumferential-mode optical resonator transverse-coupled thereto, a modulator optical component transverse-coupled to the circumferential-mode resonator, and a modulator control component. A control signal applied to the modulator optical component through the modulator control component alters the round-trip optical loss of the circumferential-mode resonator, thereby altering the transmission of a resonant optical signal through the transmission fiber-optic waveguide. The modulator optical element may comprise an open waveguide or a closed waveguide (i.e., resonator). The resonator round-trip optical loss may be altered by altering the optical absorption/scattering of the modulator optical component, by altering the amount of optical power transfer between the resonator and the modulator optical component, or by altering an optical resonance frequency of a resonant modulator optical component.

Resonant optical modulators

A fiber-ring optical resonator comprises a transverse segment of an optical fiber differing from adjacent segments in at least one physical property (e.g., diameter, density, refractive index, chemical composition, etc) so that it may support a resonant circumferential optical mode and enable evanescent optical coupling between the circumferential mode and an optical mode of a second optical element. The resonator may be fabricated with alignment structure(s) for enabling passive alignment of the second optical element for evanescent coupling, and/or with structure for suppressing undesired modes and/or resonances. A fiber-ring resonator may form a portion of a resonant optical filter or modulator. A plurality of optically-coupled fiber-ring resonators (formed on one or more fibers) may provide tailored spectral properties. Spatially-selective techniques for forming a fiber-ring resonator may include masking/etching, masking/deposition, laser machining, laser patterning, combinations thereof, and/or functional equivalents thereof.

Fiber-ring optical resonators

An alignment device includes an alignment member with one or more waveguide-alignment grooves, resonator alignment grooves, and/or an alignment groove for a second optical element such as a modulator. The various alignment grooves reliably establish and stably maintain evanescent optical coupling between the optical elements positioned therein. A method for assembling a resonant optical power control device may include: fabricating an alignment member with the alignment grooves; positioning and securing the optical elements in corresponding alignment grooves for optical coupling therebetween. Alignment grooves in the substrate and/or in one or more of the optical elements are fabricated at proper depths and positions and preferably with mating grooves and/or flanges to enable optical coupling without extensive active alignment procedures.

Resonant optical power control device assemblies

A method for cylindrical processing of an optical medium, including optical fiber and optical materials of substantially cylindrical form. The method of the preferred embodiments includes the steps of rotating an optical medium about a longitudinal relative rotation axis thereof relative to a processing tool; spatially selectively applying the processing tool to a portion of a surface of the optical medium in operative cooperation with relative rotation of the optical medium and the processing tool, thereby producing a patterned (i.e., spatially selective) structural alteration of the optical medium, the pattern including altered, differentially-altered and unaltered portions of the optical medium. Specialized techniques for spatially selectively generating the structural alteration may include masking/etching, masking/deposition, machining or patterning with lasers or beams, combinations thereof, and/or functional equivalents thereof.

Cylindrical processing of optical media

Optical components may be aligned for transverse-optical coupling by: fabricating a first optical component on a substrate; fabricating an alignment member on the substrate suitably positioned relative to the first optical component; and assembling a second optical component onto the alignment member, thereby establishing transverse optical coupling between the optical components. The substrate may preferably be substantially planar. The alignment member may mechanically engage the second optical component so as to accurately establish and stably maintain transverse optical coupling. The first optical component and the alignment member may preferably be fabricated on the substrate using precision spatially selective materials processing techniques. Transverse optical coupling between two optical components may be stably maintained by substantially embedding transverse-coupled portions of the components in a substantially solid substantially transparent low-index medium. An alignment member may serve to accurately position the transverse-coupled components prior to embedding and hold them in place during embedding.

Alignment apparatus and methods for transverse optical coupling

A resonant optical filter includes first and second transmission waveguides and a resonator (including one or more evanescently coupled resonator segments). The resonator supports at least one circumferential resonant mode and is evanescently coupled to the waveguides. An optical signal entering the filter through a waveguide and substantially resonant with the resonator is transferred to the other waveguide, while an optical signal entering the filter and substantially non-resonant with the resonator remains in the same waveguide. Multiple resonator segments may be formed on a common resonator fiber and positioned for enabling coupling between them, resulting in a tailored frequency filter function. The resonators may include alignment structure(s) (flanges, grooves, etc) for enabling passive positioning and/or supporting first and second transmission waveguides, such as optical fiber tapers. Structures may also be provided for suppressing undesired optical modes and/or resonances associated with the resonators and/or alignment structures on the resonator fiber.

Resonant optical filters

An optically based resonating sensor useful for detecting and discriminating specified substances present in the environment is provided. The resonating sensor comprises a light source and a coupler adapted to allow light to pass from the light source to a resonator wherein the light is stored for a specified period of time. The resonator is coupled to the coupler such that some portion of the light passing through the coupler enters the resonator and some portion of the light resonating within the resonator exits the resonator to the coupler. The outer surface of the resonator is modified such that the interaction of the modified outer surface of the resonator with a specified substance in the environment alters some characteristic of the light flowing through the sensor system. A detector is arranged to observe and detect the interactions between the modified outer surface and the light flowing through the system.

Optical resonator microsphere sensor with altering Q-factor

A resonator, e.g., a silica microsphere or disk, is used between two fiber optic cables to form an add/drop filter. The resonator is resonant with the frequency to be added or dropped. In this way, only that particular channel is added or dropped as needed.

Resonator fiber bidirectional coupler

A channel-obtaining device takes the desired channel and uses a resonant semiconductor device to mix the channel to a different frequency. The dropped channel is sufficiently removed from the other channels in frequency that it can be effectively separated.

Dynamic channel copying device for use in fiber optics system using a nonlinear optical media

All-optical logic gates in which binary words are encoded using wavelength. A method and apparatus for processing information in this wavelength encoded format is provided. The processing may occur entirely in the optical domain. This approach is modular and enables construction of logic gates using custom wave guide chips that can be mass-produced in a manner similar to that of conventional electronic digital chips. Specific gates, such as AND, OR, EXOR, or NAND, may be 'programmed' into a given chip during its fabrication to encode the desired truth table. The output states of the chip are determined by ultrafast mixing of binary encoded wavelengths in a semiconductor optical amplifier. The result is a new wavelength having a relationship to the input wavelengths determined entirely by the desired truth table. The possible clock-rates for these gates can be exceedingly high, such as several hundred Gigabits/second. The product of integer word length 'N' and gate clock speed can exceed several Terabits/second and may be as high as the overall optical bandwidth of the system. Complicated multi-input functions may be constructed using this approach and dynamically programmable functions may be built in which either electrical or optical signals reconfigure a set of gates by reprogramming the inverter operations in the chips.

Growing community of inventors

Altadena, CA, United States of America

Guido Hunziker