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. 20, 1997
Filed:
May. 01, 1995
John B Georges, Berkeley, CA (US);
Kam Y Lau, Danville, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
The invention discloses a method and an apparatus for optically transmitting a narrow-band optical signal beam having a sub-carrier frequency in the 20 to 300 GHz range. The apparatus has a semiconductor laser with a lasing cavity of length L. The length L preferably ranges from less than 1 mm to 10 mm, thereby defining the round-trip resonance frequency according to the following equation c/2 nL. The apparatus has a signal source for generating an electrical modulating signal having a modulation frequency contained in a narrow band containing the round-trip resonance frequency. An in-coupling means delivers the electrical modulating signal to the semiconductor laser which produces a sub-carrier modulated signal beam whose sub-carrier modulation frequency lies within a response band and corresponds to the modulation frequency. The apparatus further includes a biasing device for providing a biasing voltage for tuning the response band and the sub-carrier modulated signal beam. According to the method of the invention the biasing voltage is used to set the width of the response band and to set a phase shift in the sub-carrier modulated optical signal beam. Varying the biasing voltage thus allows to phase-modulate the sub-carrier modulated optical signal beam.