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:
Oct. 03, 2017
Filed:
Nov. 21, 2016
Oracle International Corporation, Redwood Shores, MD (US);
Xuezhe Zheng, San Diego, CA (US);
Ying Luo, San Diego, CA (US);
Daniel Y. Lee, San Diego, CA (US);
Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy, San Diego, CA (US);
ORACLE INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION, Redwood Shores, CA (US);
Abstract
A tunable laser includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) having a reflective end coupled to a shared reflector and an output end, which is coupled to a demultiplexer through an input waveguide. The demultiplexer comprises a set of Mach-Zehnder (MZ) lattice filters, which function as symmetric de-interleaving wavelength splitters, that are cascaded to form a binary tree that connects an input port, which carries multiple wavelength bands, to N wavelength-specific output ports that are coupled to a set of N reflectors. A set of variable optical attenuators (VOAs) is coupled to outputs of the MZ lattice filters in the binary tree, and is controllable to selectively add loss to the outputs, so that only a single favored wavelength band, which is associated with a favored reflector in the set of N reflectors, lases at any given time. An output waveguide is optically coupled to the lasing cavity.