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:
Aug. 04, 1998
Filed:
May. 06, 1997
Dietrich Marcuse, Lincroft, NJ (US);
Herman Melvin Presby, Highland Park, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies, Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An acousto-optic silica optical circuit switch that selectively routes signals to one of two outputs includes a surface-acoustic-wave source and a coupler waveguide structure formed within silica glass. The waveguide structure includes a single mode input section connected to a multimode section connected to first and second single mode output sections. The first output section has a structure capable of accepting power from an optical signal propagating in a first transmission mode of the multimode section, and the second output section has a structure capable of accepting power from an optical signal propagating in a second transmission mode in said multimode section. In operation, RF excitation is selectively provided to the SAW source to selectively cause coupling of the first and second transmission modes in the multimode section. As a consequence, an optical signal launched in the input section propagates through the multimode section to the first output section in the first transmission mode of the waveguide structure, or alternatively, such launched optical signal is coupled to the second transmission mode in the multimode section such that its power is transferred to the second transmission mode to propagate into the second output section.