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:
May. 27, 2003
Filed:
Aug. 25, 2000
Gregg E. Favalora, Cambridge, MA (US);
Rick K. Dorval, Goffstown, NH (US);
Actuality Systems, Inc., Reading, MA (US);
Abstract
An optical crossbar switch system includes: a mask comprising multiple patterns, wherein at least one of the multiple patterns is a diffractive pattern; and a spatial light modulator positioned to receive at least one optical input beam and selectively couple at least a portion of each of the at least one input beam to one of the patterns of the mask, each coupled portion defining an intermediate beam, wherein each pattern, when selected by the spatial light modulator, is configured to redirect the intermediate beam to one of N targets, where N is an integer greater than two. Further, a method for selectively coupling at least one input beam to one of multiple output channels includes: selectively coupling at least a portion of each of the at least one input beam to one of multiple patterns on a mask; and diffracting at least one of the coupled portions from the mask to one of the output channels.