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:
Oct. 24, 1995
Filed:
Mar. 18, 1992
John C Brock, Redondo Beach, CA (US);
TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA (US);
Abstract
A wavelength controlled optical true time delay generator (14) utilizes passive switching to direct an optical beam to different length paths depending on the input wavelength. In one embodiment a dispersive element (20) is used to reflect the input beam at different angles depending on the incident wavelength. Different optical paths are then provided for the light reflected at different angles. In another embodiment, an optical fiber (50) is provided with reflective gratings (52), each of which are reflective at different wavelengths. The gratings (52) are positioned at different lengths along the optical fiber (50) to provide for different path lengths of light reflected by the gratings and back down the optical fiber (50) to an optical output (38). The true time delay generator (14) provides for a true time delay of any length in a low loss switching mechanism which is relatively inexpensive and compact.