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. 14, 2006
Filed:
Dec. 03, 2004
Demetri Psaltis, Pasadena, CA (US);
Christophe Moser, Pasadena, CA (US);
Greg Steckman, Pasadena, CA (US);
Karsten Buse, Gmhuette, DE;
Ingo Nee, Papenburg, DE;
Joerg Hukriede, Lengerich, DE;
Demetri Psaltis, Pasadena, CA (US);
Christophe Moser, Pasadena, CA (US);
Greg Steckman, Pasadena, CA (US);
Karsten Buse, Gmhuette, DE;
Ingo Nee, Papenburg, DE;
Joerg Hukriede, Lengerich, DE;
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention provides a multi-channel tunable filter and methods for making such a filter. In one embodiment, the filter comprises a bank of gratings imprinted into a filter material, such as Lithium Niobate. In another embodiment, the filter comprises a bank of gratings imprinted on a thin-film filter. An optical read-head comprising a pair of lenses is configured to pass light from within an optical fiber carrying multiple wavelengths through an appropriate grating to extract or drop a specific wavelength. To ensure continuous data transmission, the filter is tuned to a wavelength by configuring the read-head to move in a hitless manner. In one embodiment, the gratings are recorded by the interference of two beams. A first plane wave reflects off a first mirror stack and a second plane wave reflects off a second mirror stack. In another embodiment, the gratings are recorded by a phase masking method.