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:
Jan. 27, 2004
Filed:
Sep. 10, 2001
Abstract
The present invention relates to a spot size converter and a method of fabricating the same, which provides efficient coupling between an optical fiber and integrated devices of optical waveguide. The spot size converter has an input and output optical waveguides formed in a vertical double-layer structure. Integrated to the output optical waveguide, an unidirectional side-tapered optical waveguide is formed. Due to the tapered structure of the optical waveguide, the effective refective index gradually changes along the length of the waveguide. Thus, the spot size of the optical signal gradually changes while the optical signal travels within the tapered optical waveguide. Therefore, the present invention effectively eliminates or minimizes the coupling loss and the reflection loss between the optical fiber and the devices connected to the spot size converter. In particular, the present invention provides method for easily fabricating a tapered and narrow optical waveguide structure using low-resolution photolithography technique and reducing the manufacturing cost and increasing the manufacturing yield at the same time.