At&t Bell Laboratories

Bell Telephone Laboratories

Bell Communications Research, Inc.

Michael A Karr, Iii

Frank H Levinson

Theodore C Rich

Mauro Di Domenico, Jr

Terry W Cline

An optical fiber coupler (10) is disclosed for interconnecting a tap cable (20) to a bus cable (30). Each cable has a portion of its sheath removed at the point of coupling to provide exposed cores (24,34). The cores are intertwined a number of times and the tension on the cables is adjusted to yield the desired loss. A cladding material fills the intertwined region, including the interstices of the cores, to provide a continuous sheath in the axial dimension.

Interconnection of optical fiber cables

A packaging scheme for apparatus including integrated optical components, such as transmitters, receivers and transceivers. The components are provided in the form of semiconductor chips bonded to a substrate such as ceramic. A glass cover which includes a light transmission path is mounted over the chips. Connectors to optical fibers are formed by molding a material over the substrate and cover. Alignment is effected by use of etched grooves in the cover which are matched to ridges in the mold.

Integrated optical circuit package

An optical fiber tap is described which comprises a beamsplitter formed by positioning bevelled, parallel endfaces of two segments of optical fiber in coaxial alignment and in close proximity to each other. A suitable dielectric film, such as air, fills the gap between the endfaces. Light propagating into the tap from the first fiber segment is partially reflected and partially refracted at the bevelled endfaces. The refracted portion enters the second fiber segment and the reflected portion leaves the tap and is detected by a photodetector. By choice of the proper angle for the bevelled endfaces, the tap can be made substantially mode independent. A greater degree of mode independence can be obtained by interposing a steady-state mode exciter between the light source and the beamsplitter. The tap is particularly useful for semiconductor junction laser stabilization by the feedback arrangement described herein since the ratio of the intensity of the reflected portion to that of the refracted portion is substantially constant. A package assembly for use in the feedback arrangement is also described.

Growing community of inventors

New Providence, NJ, United States of America

Michael A Karr, Iii