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. 02, 2016
Filed:
Jun. 08, 2015
Lumentum Operations Llc, Milpitas, CA (US);
Sheldon McLaughlin, Ottawa, CA;
Peter David Roorda, Ottawa, CA;
Paul Colbourne, Ottawa, CA;
Barrie Keyworth, Stittsville, CA;
Lumentum Operations LLC, Milpitas, CA (US);
Abstract
A multicast optical switch uses a diffractive bulk optical element, which splits at least one input optical beam into sub-beams, which freely propagate in a medium towards an array of directors, such as MEMS switches, for directing the sub-beams to output ports. Freely propagating optical beams can cross each other without introducing mutual optical loss. The amount of crosstalk is limited by scattering in the optical medium, which can be made virtually non-existent. Therefore, the number of the crossover connections, and consequently the number of inputs and outputs of a multicast optical switch, can be increased substantially without a loss or a crosstalk penalty.