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:
May. 09, 1995
Filed:
Sep. 22, 1993
Jayantilal S Patel, Red Bank, NJ (US);
Yaron Silberberg, West Windsor Township, Mercer County, NJ (US);
Bell Communications Research, Inc., Livingston, NJ (US);
Abstract
A liquid-crystal optical switch capable of switching separate optical signals in a physical input channel to a selected output channel. A diffraction grating spatially divides the input channel into its frequency components, which pass through different segments of a liquid-crystal modulator. The liquid-crystal modulator segments are separately controlled to rotate the polarization of the frequency channel passing therethrough or to leave it intact. The channels then pass through a polarization-dispersive element, such as calcite, which spatially separates the beams in the transverse direction according to their polarization. A second diffraction grating recombines the frequency components of the same polarization into multiple output beams.