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. 13, 2002
Filed:
Aug. 08, 2000
William J. Kessler, Groton, MA (US);
Michael B. Frish, Andover, MA (US);
Steven J. Davis, Londonderry, NH (US);
Philip Keating, Salem, MA (US);
Confluent Photonics Corporations, Andover, MA (US);
Abstract
An optical bench that provides a core component for a communication system that performs all of the necessary switching, adding, dropping, and manipulating of optical signals entirely in the optical domain. The optical bench comprises a dispersive optical element and a spatial light modulator. Various devices that are useful in the field of optical communication can be produced using the optical bench apparatus as a core component, with the addition of other components to the optical bench. Exemplary optical communication devices that can be built using the optical bench include optical add/drop multiplexers (OADM), Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) routers, tunable filters, tunable laser sources, optical cross connects, and the like.