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:
Jul. 23, 1996
Filed:
Dec. 05, 1994
Ann W Dennis, Aloha, OR (US);
Jerome J Giza, Hillsboro, OR (US);
Donald H Kozicki, Portland, OR (US);
John D Liebenrood, Portland, OR (US);
Casey S Shaar, Portland, OR (US);
Photon Kinetics, Inc., Beaverton, OR (US);
Abstract
An optical multiplexer comprises a signal energy divider, such as a directional coupler, for dividing optical signal energy received by way of a multiplexer upstream port into a control portion and a utilization portion, and an optical switch having a first switch port connected to receive the utilization portion of the optical signal energy and having a plurality of additional switch ports connected to repsecive multiplexer downstream ports. A decoder extracts a control message from the control portion of the optical signal energy, and a controller is responsive to the control message for selectively setting the switch to interconnect the first switch port and a selected one of the additional switch ports. In this manner, at least part of the utilization portion of the optical signal energy received by the multiplexer by way of the multiplexer upstream port is emitted from the multiplexer by way of the multiplexer downstream port that is connected to the selected one of the additional switch ports.