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:
Apr. 08, 1997
Filed:
May. 15, 1995
James E Nicholson, Austin, TX (US);
Tracor, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
An incident optical signal is captured by an array of apertures and directed to pairs of fibers, each pair having a delay fiber with a unique length and a no-delay fiber. Each pair of fibers further has a unique transmission characteristic. Time interpolation is then performed using the transmission characteristic curve for each delay fiber and the duration from the time the optical signal arrives over the no-delay fibers and the time the signal arrives over the delay fibers to determine the wavelength. In a second embodiment, each pair of delay and no-delay fibers is replaced by a fiber splitter which directs light into a no-delay fiber and a delay fiber that have been split from the input of the splitter. In a third embodiment, two fiber splitters are used in place of the pairs of fibers. Each splitter has a number of branches for receiving light and an output end for guiding light onto the photodetectors. The propagation time of the delay optical signal, as compared against the no-delay signal, and other factors such as the length of the individual fiber and the transmission characteristics, are used to determine the wavelength.