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:
Nov. 04, 2003
Filed:
Feb. 20, 2001
Keith W. Goossen, Howell, NJ (US);
Aralight, Inc., Jamesburg, NJ (US);
Abstract
A micro-mechanical optical modulator having a movable membrane that is spaced from a multi-layer mirror that is disposed on a substrate. The multi-layer mirror includes an anti-reflection layer that is disposed on the substrate, and a coating layer that is disposed on the anti-reflection layer. The combined thickness of the membrane and the coating layer is equal to an integer multiple of one-half of the operating wavelength of the modulator. This thickness restriction is different than prior art Fabry-Perot cavity modulators, which typically independently restrict membrane thickness and coating layer thickness, each to multiples of one quarter of the operating wavelength. By relaxing the requirements imposed by the prior art on layer thickness, modulator performance parameters can be optimized. Specifically, optical bandwidth can be traded for insertion loss and vice versa, as suits the specifics of a particular application.