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:
Feb. 03, 2004
Filed:
Aug. 14, 2002
Wyndham Robertson, III, Fremont, CA (US);
Coherent, Inc., Santa Clara, CA (US);
Abstract
In a method and apparatus for synchronizing the output of two passively modelocked pulsed lasers, the output of each laser is sampled and delivered to two photodiodes, one for each laser. The output of the each photodiode is converted to a train of digital pulses having the pulse repetition frequency of each laser. The digital pulses are processed in a digital phase detector that generates from the digital pulses a first analog voltage representative of the phase difference at the photodiodes between corresponding pulses in each train. This analog voltage is summed with a second analog voltage representative of a desired phase relationship of the laser pulses at a target location remote from the photodiodes. The sum of the analog voltages provides an error signal that commands a device to adjust the length of the resonator of one of the lasers. When the error signal is minimized, pulses from each laser have the same repetition frequency and have the desired phase relationship at the target.