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. 28, 2001
Filed:
May. 13, 1999
Craig W. Hodgson, Thousand Oaks, CA (US);
Benjamin J. Vakoc, San Mateo, CA (US);
Litton Systems, Inc., Woodland Hills, CA (US);
Abstract
An acoustic array includes amplifiers and sensor subarrays, both of which are placed along rungs that connect a return distribution bus with both a signal distribution bus and a pump distribution bus. By placing the amplifiers along the rungs, separate buses can be used for distributing the optical signal and the pump energy for the amplifiers, thereby facilitating the use of standardized couplers. Time division multiplexed sensor subarrays are advantageously connected to unique combinations of laser signal sources and signal return buses, in which the laser signal sources generate different optical wavelengths that are multiplexed on the signal return buses. Optical sources include intensity modulators on either side of an amplifier to eliminate extraneous noise between optical pulses. In addition, amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) filters may be advantageously used to reduce optical noise at wavelengths other than those of interest.