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. 17, 1998
Filed:
Oct. 02, 1995
Suwat Thaniyavarn, Bellevue, WA (US);
The Boeing Company, Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
An optical switching network includes one or more planar substrates with an optical waveguide switching array formed thereon butt-coupled to a waveguide component. The waveguide component is a planar substrate with a plurality of passive optical waveguides thereon. The input ends and output ends of the waveguides are disposed along the butt-coupled edge(s) of the waveguide component substrate. The waveguides and switches are arranged with the waveguides interconnecting the input and output switch arrays so that an incoming optical signal can be directed to any desired output on the output array. The use of planar substrates with electro-optic and passive waveguide circuits allows for a modular approach, where the active switch array substrate and the passive waveguide substrates can be optimized individually. An N.times.N switch array circuit can be formed of N sets of N.times.1 switch arrays on the input substrate and N sets of N.times.1 switch arrays on the output substrate. The input and output switch arrays are then interconnected by butt-coupling to a passive waveguide array fabricated on another substrate to form a complete N.times.N switch array circuit.