Microalign Technologies, Inc.

Other

Allied Telesis, Inc.

Allied Telesyn International Corporation

Igor Gurevich

Leonid Velikov

Victor Faybishenko

Shinkyo Kaku

Victor Faibishenko

Nikolai Fedyakin

Proposed is a beam shaper for beams emitted from at least one laser-diode bar and consisting of a fast-axis collimator composed of a common cylindrical lens with an aspherical profile, an array of spherical/aspherical telescope units formed from a pair of microlenses, where each individual telescope unit is shifted in accordance with a predetermined law to a certain distance relative to a neighboring individual telescope unit, an array of cylindrical lenses shifted relative to each other in accordance with another predetermined law, and a system of collimation lenses that collimate the beams of the predetermined spatial pattern into a two-dimensional pattern having a less discrete and more uniform distribution of light intensity and a shape more convenient for subsequent coupling, e.g., for focusing into the end face of an optical fiber of a light transmission system.

Beam shaper system for laser diode array

The optical signal multiplexer/demultiplexer of the invention is characterized by incorporating a bidirectional optical transceiver which is capable of using individual channels working in a transmitting and receiving modes simultaneously. The device consists of a number of optical prisms combined into a single module and provided with appropriate dichroic mirrors and interferrometric filters located on the outer surfaces of the prisms. According to one embodiment of the invention, the module consists of two sequentially arranged parallelogram prisms, a single-channel signal input/output unit with an optical collimator/focusator on one side of the prism module and a two-channel signal output/input unit with a respective optical collimator/focusator on the other side of the prism module. The first prism, which is located on the single-channel side has a first antireflective coating transparent to all input/output signals (&#x3bb;, &#x3bb;, &#x3bb;) and a second coating located on the two-channel side of the first prism that reflects one optical signal (&#x3bb;) and passes the remaining two optical signals (&#x3bb;and &#x3bb;). Thus, the input/output signals of several different wavelengths can be multiplexed/demultiplexed while passing in a multi-bounce zigzag expanded beam light paths in various combinations of signal-propagation directions. A pair of prism modules described above may be built-into a section of the main signal transmission/reception line and the output side of each prism module may be connected to a respective bidirectional optical signal transceiver.

Bidirectional optical signal multiplexer/demultiplexer

The optical system of the invention is comprised of a monolithic microlens array assembly that consists of two groups of microlenses sub-assemblies having different pitches between the adjacent lenses. A ratio between the pitches of sub-assemblies is determined by a predetermined relationship between the parameters of the optical system so that the microlenses of the first sub-assembly create a plurality of individual intermediate images arranged side-by-side in a common intermediate plane that are transferred by the microlenses of the second sub-assembly to the final image plane in the form of a plurality of identical and accurately registered images interposed onto each other. This is achieved due to the aforementioned ratio between the pitches.

Compact optical assembly for imaging a remote object

A flat wide-angle lens system of the invention has a reduced axial length and is intended for creating images with extremely wide angle of observation. The system consists of the first component which is intended for reduction of the field angle of light incidence onto the objective and comprises an assembly of at least two microlens arrays with the same pitch between the adjacent microlenses and arranged with respect to each other so as to provide afocality, and a second component that comprises an assembly of conventional spherical or aspherical microlenses that create an image on an image receiver. Each two coaxial microlenses of the microlens arrays of the first component form an inverted microtelescope of Galileo. The outlet aperture of a single microtelescope is made so that spherical aberration can be minimized almost to 0, while field aberrations can be corrected by design parameters of the microlenses.

Flat wide-angle lens system

A flat wide-angle objective of the invention consists of a first sub-unit that is located on the object side of the objective and includes an assembly of two conventional aspheric negative, plano-concave lenses, and a second sub-unit in the form of a set of four microlens arrays arranged on the image-receiving side of the objective. The microlenses of all microlens arrays have the same arrangement of microlenses in all the arrays. A diaphragm array with restricting openings can be sandwiched between a pair of the microlens arrays. The invention makes it possible to reduce longitudinal dimension of the objective. In operation, the first sub-unit creates an imaginary image of the object in its focal plane, which is located on object side of the objective, while the second sub-unit creates an actual image of the object in the image plane on the image-receiving side of the objective.

Flat wide-angle objective

The optical module of the invention for high-speed bidirectional transceiver consists of a signal receiving unit, a signal transmitting unit, a common receiving-transmitting optical fiber, and a fiber coupling unit. The laser diode and the photodiode are arranged parallel to each other in closely located recesses of the module housing. Such an arrangement makes it possible to shorten distances for guiding lead wires from the terminals of the PC board to the respective terminals of the transmitting and receiving diodes. The laser diode emits a first transmitting laser beam that passes through a microobjective that collimates the beam and directs into onto a full-reflection mirror located inside the module housing. The full-reflection mirror reflects the first transmitting beam at an angle of 90&#xb0; and transmits it to the end face of an optical fiber through an optical fiber collimator that centers the beam with the fiber core. The module is provided with a second mirror, which is fully transparent to the aforementioned first transmitting beam, but is fully reflective to a second transmitting beam that may propagate in a direction opposite to the first transmitting beam on a different wavelength. Alignment of the optical components is facilitated due to the fact that it is carried out with diffractionally limited and collimated beams.

Growing community of inventors

Saarbrucken, Germany

Igor Gurevich