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.

Date of Patent:
Mar. 01, 2005

Filed:

May. 14, 2001
Applicants:

Ting Wang, Princeton, NJ (US);

Allan Schweitzer, San Mateo, CA (US);

Maximilan Ott, Pennington, NJ (US);

Inventors:

Ting Wang, Princeton, NJ (US);

Allan Schweitzer, San Mateo, CA (US);

Maximilan Ott, Pennington, NJ (US);

Assignee:

NEC Corporation, Tokyo, JP;

Attorney:
Primary Examiner:
Assistant Examiner:
Int. Cl.
CPC ...
G02B006/00 ;
U.S. Cl.
CPC ...
Abstract

A luminescent material, such as phosphor, is radiated by energy propagated from the side of an optical fiber, causing the luminescent material to emit visible light The luminescent material can be of a coincidentally-excited type, requiring the absorption of two wavelengths of radiation to emit visible light. In such a case, two side-emitting optical fibers can be used, with each optical fiber providing one of the needed radiation wavelengths. One embodiment of the invention involves a matrix of optical fibers forming an optical display panel made using coincidentally-excited phosphors. Side-emitting optical fibers are used to simultaneously stimulate a phosphor pixel located between the two fibers, allowing matrix addressing of each pixel individually. The optical display panel is constructed of only optical components. Another embodiment involves an optical switch with coincidentally-excited luminescent material. One radiation is provided by a side-emitting optical fiber. To activate the switch, a second radiation is provided by a laser diode.


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