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:
Feb. 11, 1992
Filed:
Mar. 26, 1991
Donald R Scifres, San Jose, CA (US);
David F Welch, San Jose, CA (US);
William Streifer, deceased, late of Palo Alto, CA (US);
Spectra Diode Laboratories, Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An optical amplifier having one or more amplifier regions with a noncollinear light path provided by curved or folded waveguides therein between input, output and reflective surfaces provided, for example, by a low reflectivity front facet and a high reflectivity rear facet. The amplifier regions are electrically pumped via conductive contacts which may be individually addressable for each amplifier region to provide phase control of the array of emitted light. Light is accepted through the front facet by a first amplifier region, is reflected from the rear facet and is emitted through the front facet. If there are multiple amplifier regions, a portion of the light is reflected by the front facet into an adjacent amplifier region. The light path is incident on the front and rear facets at an angle other than normal thereto and preferably at most 10.degree. from normal. The light source may be a laser diode which can be monolithically integrated on the same substrate as the amplifier to form a master oscillator power amplifier (MOPA) device. The laser can be wavelength tunable. The MOPA can also have a steerable output beam.