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. 25, 2003
Filed:
Nov. 21, 2001
Kostas Tastavridis, Harlow, GB;
Nortel Networks Limited, St. Laurent, CA;
Abstract
Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are cheaper to manufacture, control and test than other types of optical amplifier such as erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). However, SOAs are non-linear in the respect that the gain of an SOA is not constant for different input or output signal powers. This is a significant problem because cross-talk between channels occurs as a result. It is known that the gain of SOAs can be clamped by integrating a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with the SOA such that their active regions are shared. The present invention enables the physical length of such devices to be increased in such a manner that the saturation output power is increased whist retaining the gain clamping effect. This is achieved by using two or more contact points on the device at which different drive currents are applied.
Data source: USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) public patent records. Weekly synchronization. How IDiyas builds this profile