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:
Jun. 02, 1992
Filed:
Apr. 05, 1991
Francois Gonthier, Outremont, CA;
Denis Ricard, Montreal, CA;
Suzanne Lacroix, Verdun, CA;
Jacques Bures, Outremont, CA;
Ecole Polytechnique, Quebec, CA;
Abstract
The optical waveguide coupler device is formed on two laterally adjacent optical fibers for splitting with wavelength-flattened ratios an incident light intensity into the two fibers. Adjacent sections of the two fibers are fused together and first and second concatenated tapered portions are formed. These two tapered portions are separated by a central optical waveguide portion including two parallel branches of slightly different lengths, each capable of propagating a light signal from either tapered portion to the other. The first and second tapered portions define optical waveguide couplers presenting coupling ratios varying with optical wavelength in accordance with different curves. The different lengths of the two parallel branches of the central portion cause a shift .phi. between the phases of the optical signals propagating through these two branches. The coupling ratios of the tapered portions and the phase shift .phi. are selected to wavelength-flatten the coupling ratios of the coupler device.