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:
Sep. 22, 1998
Filed:
Jul. 21, 1997
William Randall Babbitt, Bellevue, WA (US);
Thomas W Mossberg, Eugene, OR (US);
University of Washington, Seattle, WA (US);
Abstract
Apparatus and methods are disclosed for spatially routing an optical pulse (data pulse) of an electromagnetic radiation and containing a specific address temporal profile and possibly additional data. Routing generally involves a unit of active material that is programmed using one or more input beams or pulses of the electromagnetic radiation providing address (i.e., waveform-discriminating) and directional (i.e., pulse routing) information to the active material. During programming, a spatial-spectral grating is created by optical interference on or in the active material of the input pulses encoding the address and directional information pertinent to the data pulse. Whenever a data pulse, encoding a temporal profile that is substantially similar to the temporal profile of the address, interacts with the grating in or on the active material, the active material produces an output pulse that propagates in a direction, relative to the material, corresponding to the directional information provided during programming.