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:
Jun. 10, 2003
Filed:
May. 14, 2001
Other;
Abstract
The present invention provides improved optical switches in which no mechanical movement is required to direct optical pathways between plural fiber ports and light transmission is bi-directional. Advantageously, the inventive switches permit bi-directional light transmission. The inventive switches also incorporate light bending devices to allow two fibers to be coupled to the light beams using a single lens for compactness. In the inventive switch, an optical signal is spatially split into two polarized beams by a birefringent element, which passes through a polarization rotation device that comprises waveplates, walk-off elements, and an electrically controllable polarization rotator, and recombine into an output fiber, achieving polarization independent operation. The switches of the present invention rely on electro-magnetically or electro-optically switching the beam polarizations from one state to another to rapidly direct the light path.