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:
Mar. 03, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 23, 1996
Kuang-Yi Wu, Bouler, CO (US);
Macro-Vision Communications, L.L.C., Boulder, CO (US);
Abstract
An electromagnetically controlled optical switch having a plurality of optical inputs. An optical signal at each input is spatially decomposed into two coparallel, orthogonally polarized beams by a birefringent element. An array of field-controlled polarization rotators are positioned in the paths of the decomposed light beams so that the polarization of the emergent beam pairs are set to be at one of the orthogonal states (i.e., both beams are either vertical or horizontally polarized). A following birefringent element spatially routes the light beam pairs based upon their polarization. A second array of polarization rotators follows the second birefringent element and is set to be in the opposite state from the first array, such that the emergent beams are orthogonal to their input states before they entered the first polarization rotator. The beams are combined by a birefringent element to form a plurality of combined beams that are coupled to output ports.