System and method for collimating and redirecting beams in a fiber optic system
First Claim
1. A connector to an optical fiber, comprising:
- a prism that includes a triangular wedge element having a first surface, a second surface and a base;
a ferrule to guide the optical fiber so as to contact the optical fiber with the first surface of the prism, the first surface being substantially perpendicular to the optical fiber; and
an aspheric lens integrated on the second surface, the integrated aspheric lens being positioned so that the prism serves to redirect a light beam at an angle relative to an axis of the optical source input through total internal reflection by utilizing the base of the triangle wedge element, the aspheric lens serving to at least one of collimate the redirected light beam and focus the light beam before being redirected.
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Abstract
A connector to an optical fiber comprises a prism, a ferrule and an aspheric lens. The prism includes a triangular wedge element having a first surface, a second surface and a base. The ferrule guides the optical fiber so as to contact the optical fiber with the first surface of the prism. The aspheric lens is integrated on the second surface, the integrated aspheric lens being positioned so that the prism serves to redirect a light beam at an angle relative to an axis of the optical source input through total internal reflection by utilizing the base of the triangle wedge element. The aspheric lens serves to collimate the redirected light beam or focus the light beam before being redirected. This arrangement may, for example, be used within a WDM system to multiplex and de-multiplex several wavelengths of light, using a “zig-zag” optical path configuration and thin film filters to separate the wavelengths.
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. A connector to an optical fiber, comprising:
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a prism that includes a triangular wedge element having a first surface, a second surface and a base;
a ferrule to guide the optical fiber so as to contact the optical fiber with the first surface of the prism, the first surface being substantially perpendicular to the optical fiber; and
an aspheric lens integrated on the second surface, the integrated aspheric lens being positioned so that the prism serves to redirect a light beam at an angle relative to an axis of the optical source input through total internal reflection by utilizing the base of the triangle wedge element, the aspheric lens serving to at least one of collimate the redirected light beam and focus the light beam before being redirected. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3)
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4. A fiber collimator, comprising:
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a prism that includes a triangular wedge element having a first surface, a second surface and a base;
a ferrule to guide an optical source input to the fiber collimator so as to contact the optical source input with the first surface of the prism, the first surface being substantially perpendicular to the optical source input; and
an aspheric lens integrated on the second surface, the integrated aspheric lens being positioned so that the prism serves to redirect a light beam at an angle relative to an axis of the optical source input, and the aspheric lens serves to collimate the redirected light beam, the base of the triangle wedge element redirecting the light beam by total internal reflection (TIR). - View Dependent Claims (5, 6, 7)
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8. A fiber coupler, comprising:
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a prism that includes a triangular wedge element having a first surface, a second surface and a base;
an aspheric lens integrated on the second surface, the integrated aspheric lens receiving a light beam, the aspheric lens being positioned so that the light beam is focused after passing through the aspheric lens, creating a focal spot image; and
a ferrule to guide an optical fiber of the fiber coupler so as to contact an optical fiber core of the optical fiber with the first surface of the prism at or near the location of the focal spot image, wherein the base of the triangle wedge element serves to redirect the focused light beam by total internal reflection (TIR) at an angle relative to an axis of the optical fiber, the focused light beam being directed into the optical fiber core. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A collimating element, comprising:
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a prism that includes a triangular wedge element having a first surface, a second surface and a base, the base of the triangle wedge element having curvature to enable it to act as a cylindrical mirror to redirect the light beam by total internal reflection; and
an aspheric lens integrated on the second surface, the aspheric lens being toric with principle axes aligned with those of the cylindrically curved base of the triangle wedge element, the integrated aspheric lens being positioned so that a chief ray of the light beam passes directly through the axis of the aspheric lens, wherein the light beam from an optical source input is an elliptically shaped beam, the elliptically shaped beam being redirected at an angle relative to an axis of the optical source input by the cylindrically curved base, the redirected light beam being collimated by the aspheric lens, the collimated light beam being a circularly or substantially circularly shaped beam, wherein the aspheric lens serves to collimate the redirected light beam, the base of the triangle wedge element redirecting the light beam by total internal reflection. - View Dependent Claims (14)
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15. A collimating optical subassembly for collimating and redirecting a divergent light beam from a point source, comprising:
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an aspheric lens that receives and collimates the divergent light beam, creating a collimated light beam;
a spacer element above the aspheric lens; and
a wedge element that refracts the collimated light beam into air at an angle relative to the axis of the aspheric lens consistent with Snell'"'"'s law, the wedge element being positioned above the spacer element, wherein the collimating optical subassembly is fabricated of optically transparent material and integrated as a single part using injection-molding techniques. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19)
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20. A focusing optical subassembly for redirecting and focusing a collimated light beam, comprising:
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a wedge element that receives the collimated light beam traveling in air;
a spacer element below the wedge element; and
an aspheric lens below the spacer element, wherein the focusing optical subassembly is fabricated of optically transparent material and integrated as a single part using injection-molding techniques, and wherein the collimated light beam received by the wedge element travels in air at an angle relative to an axis of the aspheric lens, the wedge element redirecting a chief ray of the collimated beam through the spacer element along the axis of the aspheric lens, the aspheric lens focusing the collimated light beam to a point along its axis. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22)
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23. An integrated optical assembly, comprising:
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a fiber collimator that redirects and collimates a light beam from an optical source input, creating a collimated light beam;
at least two focusing optical subassemblies, the at least two focusing optical subassemblies being aligned along a common axis; and
an optically transparent block that receives the collimated light beam from the fiber collimator, the optically transparent block having a top side coated to act as a reflective mirror and a bottom side including thin film filters (TFFs), each with a different passband wavelength and each being positioned over each focusing optical subassembly, the top side being the side opposite to at least one of the fiber collimator and the focusing optical subassemblies, wherein the collimated light beam travels in a zig-zag fashion within the optically transparent block, wavelength components of the collimated light beam being separated from each other by the TFFs with matching passband wavelengths and focused by the focusing optical subassemblies below the TFFs. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28)
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29. An optical multiplexer of a zig-zag design, comprising:
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a fiber coupler that redirects and couples a light beam with different wavelength components into an optical fiber;
at least two collimating optical subassemblies receiving light beams from different point sources, the at least two collimating optical subassemblies being aligned along a common axis;
an optically transparent block that receives light beams with different wavelength components, the optically transparent block having a top side coated to act as a reflective mirror and a bottom side including thin film filters (TFFs), each with a different passband wavelength and each being positioned over each collimating optical subassembly, the top side being the side opposite to at least one of the fiber coupler and the collimating optical subassemblies, wherein light beams from the point sources travel through the collimating optical subassemblies, the TTFs, the optically transparent block and the fiber coupler into the optical fiber. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31)
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32. A mold assembly for fabricating an integrated optical assembly as a single injection-molded part, the integrated optical assembly including a connector housing, an optical de-multiplexer and an optical multiplexer, the mold assembly comprising:
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first and second mold halves arranged to mate with each other, forming a draw direction oriented parallel to axes of aspheric lenses of a focusing optical subassembly of the optical de-multiplexer and a collimating optical subassembly of the optical multiplexer, and a single slider used to form ferrules for a fiber collimator of the optical de-multiplexer and a fiber coupler of the optical multiplexer as well as to form the connector housing, wherein the first mold half is used to shape wedges of the collimating and focusing optical subassemblies and to shape aspheric lenses of the fiber collimator and the fiber coupler, and the second mold half is used to shape total internal reflection surfaces of the fiber collimator and the fiber coupler and to shape the aspheric lenses of the collimating and focusing subassemblies. - View Dependent Claims (33, 34)
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35. An integrated optical subassembly, comprising:
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a fiber coupler that redirects and couples a light beam with different wavelength components into an optical fiber;
at least two collimating elements that receives elliptically divergent light beams from edge-emitting lasers, the at least two collimating elements being aligned along a common axis and spaced so that the elliptically divergent light beams become redirected and collimated into circular or nearly circular light beams;
an optically transparent block that receives the circular or nearly circular light beams with different wavelength components, the optically transparent block having a top side coated to act as a reflective mirror and a bottom side including thin film filters (TFFs), each with a different passband wavelength and each being positioned over each collimating element, the top side being the side opposite to at least one of the fiber coupler and the collimating optical subassemblies, wherein the circular or nearly circular light beams travel through the TTFs, the optically transparent block and the fiber coupler into the optical fiber. - View Dependent Claims (36, 37, 38)
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Specification