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:
Dec. 31, 1991
Filed:
May. 08, 1989
Thomas J Cloonan, Downers Grove, IL (US);
Stephen J Hinterlong, Aurora, IL (US);
Harvard S Hinton, Naperville, IL (US);
Frank K Hwang, Warren, NJ (US);
Jurgen Jahns, Shrewsbury, NJ (US);
Jack L Jewell, Bridgewater, NJ (US);
Anthony L Lentine, St. Charles, IL (US);
Frederick B McCormick, Jr, Lisle, IL (US);
David A Miller, Fairhaven, NJ (US);
Miles J Murdocca, Jackson, NJ (US);
Michael E Prise, Atlantic Highlands, NJ (US);
Gaylord W Richards, Naperville, IL (US);
AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
A reduced-blocking system where a perfect shuffle equivalent network having a plurality of node stages successively interconnected by link stages, is advantageously combined with expansion before the node stages and/or concentration after the node stages in a manner allowing the design of a system with arbitrarily low or zero blocking probability. An illustrative photonic system implementation uses free-space optical apparatus to effect a low loss, crossover interconnection of two-dimensional arrays of switching nodes comprising, for example, symmetric self electro-optic effect devices (S-SEEDs). Several low loss beam conbination techniques are used to direct multiple arrays of beams to an S-SEED array, and to redirect a reflected output beam array to a subsequent node stage.