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:
Sep. 02, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 12, 2001
Aly F. Elrefaie, Cupertino, CA (US);
Shih-Yuan Wang, Palo Alto, CA (US);
Gazillion Bits Inc., San Jose, CA (US);
Abstract
An optical fiber having extended single-mode capabilities is described in which subwavelength microstructural voids are introduced into the core and/or cladding to allow a fine tuning of the difference between their effective refractive indices. The introduction of subwavelength microstructures into the optical material, preferably through a photolithographic process at the preform stage, allows for control of the effective refractive index difference between the core and the cladding that is more precise than the control afforded by chemical doping processes (e.g., flame hydrolysis) alone. Accordingly, the specified effective refractive index difference between the core and the cladding may be made smaller than that allowed by chemical doping processes alone, thereby allowing the optical fiber to exhibit single-mode properties for larger core diameters.