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:
Nov. 24, 1992
Filed:
Mar. 05, 1991
David W Stowe, Medfield, MA (US);
Daniel R Campbell, Medfield, MA (US);
Aster Corporation, Milford, MA (US);
Abstract
A means of fabricating wideband 1.times.8 singlemode fiber optic couplers is disclosed. It has been found that a 1.times.7 fiber optic coupler can be fused by twisting six fibers around a central seventh fiber, heating the region on contact among the seven fibers, and drawing until the desired distribution of optical power is achieved among the seven fibers. Both 1.times.6 and 1.times.7 couplers can be made this way depending upon the extent of drawing. Using such a coupler in combination with conventional 1.times.2 and wideband 1.times.2 couplers allows fabrication of 1.times.8 couplers using only two or three separate couplers compared to seven couplers required in coupler tree structures. Further, by taking advantage of selected wavelength response behaviors characteristic of each coupler in the combination, the combination of 1.times.2 and 1.times.7 or 1.times.6 couplers is done in a manner to provide relatively improved coupling uniformity over a bandwidth of .+-. 50 nm around the operating wavelengths of the 1.times.8 coupler.