Tunable optical filter, optical switch, and optical add/drop multiplexer employing linearly variable thin film optical filters
First Claim
1. A tunable wavelength filter;
- comprising;
an optical path having an input port and a drop port;
a linearly variable filter within the optical path; and
an actuator mechanically coupled to the linearly variable filter, the actuator operable to position a portion of the linearly variable filter corresponding to an optical channel in the optical path.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A reconfigurable non-blocking Optical Add/Drop Module (OADM) using linearly variable thin film optical filters. The OADM is tunable to drop one or more target channels from an optical signal without interfering with any channels between a starting channel and the dropped channels. During tuning, all of the channels in the optical signal are expressed. In one embodiment of the OADM, two linearly variable thin film optical filters are optically coupled in a cascade series such that one or more channels may be dropped by tuning both to the dropped channels. The optical filters are electronically coupled to a common controller that controls the operation of each of the linearly variable thin film optical filters. The filters are tuned separately to reach the target dropped channels without interfering with any intermediate channels.
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Citations
6 Claims
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1. A tunable wavelength filter;
- comprising;
an optical path having an input port and a drop port;
a linearly variable filter within the optical path; and
an actuator mechanically coupled to the linearly variable filter, the actuator operable to position a portion of the linearly variable filter corresponding to an optical channel in the optical path. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4)
- comprising;
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5. A tunable wavelength filter;
- comprising;
a linearly variable filter; and
a plurality of movable mirrors defining an optical path through a portion of the linearly variable filter corresponding to an optical channel. - View Dependent Claims (6)
- comprising;
Specification