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. 02, 2002
Filed:
Nov. 16, 2000
Yong-Sheng Chao, Storrs, CT (US);
Ying Zhao, New York, NY (US);
Advanced Optical Technologies, Inc., E. Hartford, CT (US);
Abstract
An optical switching system employing switching modules. Each module comprises (a) a source channel, (b) a transmitting element, (c) a receiving element, and (d) a destination channel. The transmitting element directs the source channel signal to a destination channel. The transmitting element includes an initial beam deflector and a beam deflection amplifier. The receiving element includes a beam deflection compressor and a beam aligner. One embodiment of the initial deflector is a pair of focusing lenses, one of which is displaced by a piezoelectric actuator. When one lens is displaced a distance d, the output light beam has a deflection angle &agr;=(f +f )/f . The beam deflection amplifier multiplies the small angle &agr; by a transfer function F to result in a beam with a deflection angle F&agr;. The receiving element is the transmitting element in reverse. The first system configuration connects a single channel to one of a number of channels. The second system configuration connects a group of M channels with another group of N channels. The third system configuration cross-connects N channels in an arbitrary manner.