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:
Mar. 04, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 13, 2000
John A. Trezza, Nashua, NH (US);
Teraconnect, Inc., Nashua, NH (US);
Abstract
An apparatus for efficiently transferring data on and off of an integrated circuit in a network node. In one embodiment, the chip has a silicon substrate and direct interconnection with optical fibers. In particular, the present invention pertains to an arrangement of the transmitters and receivers, along with processing circuitry and optical fibers, so signals are routed most efficiently for a given type of architecture, such as ring, star, routers, and crossbars. In one embodiment, the transmitters and receivers are interdigitated to provide bi-directional optical channels. An additional feature of the invention is the mating of the optical fibers to the transmitters and receivers, such that there is a direct correspondence on both ends of the optic fibers. The optical fibers of the transmitters and receivers can be grouped or bundled together to allow reconfiguration of different topology or to improve system performance by bundling together certain fibers.