The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 23, 1989
Filed:
Dec. 22, 1987
Marko Erman, Paris, FR;
U.S. Philips Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
An optical switching element including two parallel optical guides G.sub.1 and G.sub.2 each constituted by a strip of a semiconductor material having a refractive index n.sub.1 formed on a semiconductor substrate having a lower refractive index n.sub.0, the switching operation being obtained by the effect of voltages applied to electrodes arranged in the switching zone, characterized in that the latter is constituted by a strip of the same semiconductor material as the guides, which extends between the latter over a coupling length D between the abscissae -D/2 and +D/2 indicated on the orientated longitudinal axis of symmetry, and in that the electrodes are at least three in number, of which a first electrode permits of applying a reference voltage to the substrate, a second electrode extends substantially at the surface of the second guide from the abscissa -D to the abscissa -.epsilon., .epsilon. being small with respect to D, and a third electrode extends substantially at the surface of the first guide from the abscissa +.epsilon. to the abscissa +D, the second and third electrodes forming strips whose longitudinal axes of symmetry enclose with the optical axes of the second and first guides, respectively, an angle -.theta. defined on first approximation by the relation: