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:
Aug. 17, 1993
Filed:
May. 11, 1992
Giok D Khoe, Eindhoven, NL;
Kieran G Wright, Eindhoven, NL;
U.S. Philips Corp., New York, NY (US);
Abstract
In an optical heterodyne or homodyne receiver an optical system (140) is used in which the local oscillator beam (L) is combined with the signal beam (S). Simultaneously, these beams are split into orthogonally polarized sub-beams. For this purpose the optical system (140) comprises polarization-sensitive beam-splitting layers (141a and 141b) and neutral beam-splitting layers (142a and 142b) which function as beam-combining elements. In order to align the directions of the exit sub-beams of the signal beam (.sub.11, S.sub.12, S.sub.2, S.sub.22) and the local oscillator beam (L.sub.11, L.sub.12, L.sub.21, L.sub.22), the angles (.alpha., .beta., .gamma., .delta.) enclosed by the beam-splitting faces are chosen to be such that two angles located opposite each other have a combined magnitude of 180.degree.. This is realised by providing the layers (141a, 142b and 141b, 142a) on side faces of one prism (140a, 140b).