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:
Jan. 09, 2001
Filed:
Nov. 20, 1998
Vladimir A. Aksyuk, Middlesex, NJ (US);
Bradley P. Barber, Chatham, NJ (US);
David J. Bishop, Summit, NJ (US);
Clinton R. Giles, Whippany, NJ (US);
Lawrence W. Stulz, Shark River Hills, NJ (US);
Rene R. Ruel, Bridgewater, NJ (US);
Lucent Technologies, Murray Hill, NJ (US);
Abstract
An optical attenuator for use in optical power regulation uses a shutter to control the insertion loss of a gap in a pair of substantially coaxially aligned waveguides, for example a pair of optical fibers. The shutter is part of a MEMS accuator device and is coupled to the movable one of a pair of spaced plates, the movable plate being movable by a voltage applied between the pair of plates. To regulate the power, a small portion of the optical power is abstracted and used to derive a control voltage that is applied to the optical attenuator for varying the attenuation inserted in the optical wave path.