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. 24, 2003
Filed:
May. 30, 2001
Mark Roy Harris, Woodlawn, CA;
David Andrew Knox, Nepean, CA;
Tropic Networks Inc., Kanata, CA;
Abstract
An interconnection module for holding and interconnecting optoelectronic cards is provided. It includes an optical midplane which accommodates and flexibly interconnects N optoelectronic cards on one side of the midplane and M cards on the other side of the midplane. Optical connectors, which are arranged on the midplane and on the cards, provide arrangement of cards on the midplane in one of the two positions, in the first position the cards on opposite sides of the midplane being parallel to each other, and in the second position the cards being perpendicular to each other. Preferably, each of the N cards on one side is connected to a subset of cards on the other side, the number of cards in the subset being variable for each of the N cards and less or equal to M in total. Additionally, a backplane section of the module, having a plurality of connectors joined via laminated strands, may be added as an extension of the midplane to interconnect any required number of cards on same side of the midplane. Corresponding method of interconnecting cards is also provided.