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:
Jul. 20, 1999
Filed:
Jul. 09, 1997
Corrado Dragone, Little Silver, NJ (US);
Lawrence W Stulz, Neptune, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An integrated optical device (e.g., a wavelength router) is formed on a substrate, where the device has a compressive force within the plane of the device and the substrate has at least one non-straight edge. The device is formed by annealing the substrate wafer and then separating the device by cutting along one or more non-straight or curved lines. When the device layer is much thinner than the substrate and when the coefficient of thermal expansion of the substrate material (e.g., silicon) is greater than that of the device material (e.g., silica), the annealing process generates the compressive force. This in turn enables the device to be separated from a wafer by cutting along non-straight lines using either a laser or a milling machine without fear of cracks and fissures propagating over time into the device. The present invention enables manufacturing with greater yields since curved devices, such as wavelength routers, can be more efficiently packed onto a single wafer. The present invention can also reduce crosstalk by eliminating the direct substrate path through which stray light, resulting from misalignments between optical fibers and the device input ports, could otherwise pass.