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:
Sep. 05, 1995
Filed:
Aug. 12, 1993
Kent A Murphy, Troutville, VA (US);
Michael F Gunther, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Angela J Plante, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Veerendra B Vuppala, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Mallika B Sen, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Nirmal Velayudhan, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Richard O Claus, Blacksburg, VA (US);
Center for Innovative Technology, Herndon, VA (US);
Abstract
Uniformity of optical coupling of optical elements such as star couplers and splitters is improved by heat treatment which causes dopants in the core of an optical fiber to diffuse into material from the cladding layer of the optical fibers from which the optical element is formed, resulting in a substantially homogeneous interior region of the star coupler or splitter. Increased lossiness of the optical element thus formed may be limited by termination of the heat treatment before dopant diffusion reaches equilibrium throughout the fibers so that a portion of the cladding layer of the fibers remains surrounding the substantially homogeneous region where the fibers have been fused together.