MICROMECHANICALLY ACTUATED DEFORMABLE OPTICAL BEAM STEERING FOR WAVELENGTH TUNABLE OPTICAL SOURCES, FILTERS AND DETECTORS
First Claim
1. An optical device comprising:
- a first region in which an optical beam is propagating;
a second region where at least one part of the optical beam is received, for further processing; and
at least one third region between the first and second regions, which is deformable and without physical discontinuities for at least one part of the optical beam;
whereinthe deformation of the third region results in the optical beam, received in the second region, having at least one of a different orientation and a different position than it initially had.
2 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) has enabled telecommunication service providers to fully exploit the transmission capacity of optical fibers. State of the art systems in long-haul networks now have aggregated capacities of terabits per second. Moreover, by providing multiple independent multi-gigabit channels, WDM technologies offer service providers with a straight forward way to build networks and expand networks to support multiple clients with different requirements. In order to reduce costs, enhance network flexibility, reduce spares, and provide re-configurability many service providers have migrated away from fixed wavelength transmitters, receivers, and transceivers, to wavelength tunable transmitters, receivers, and transceivers as well as wavelength dependent add-drop multiplexer, space switches etc. However, to meet the competing demands for improved performance, increased integration, reduced footprint, reduced power consumption, increased flexibility, re-configurability, and lower cost it is desirable to exploit/adopt monolithic optical circuit technologies, hybrid optoelectronic integration, and microelectromechanical systems (MEMS).
28 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An optical device comprising:
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a first region in which an optical beam is propagating; a second region where at least one part of the optical beam is received, for further processing; and at least one third region between the first and second regions, which is deformable and without physical discontinuities for at least one part of the optical beam;
whereinthe deformation of the third region results in the optical beam, received in the second region, having at least one of a different orientation and a different position than it initially had. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An optical device comprising:
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a substrate having formed upon it a layer structure comprising a plurality of layers; a deformable structure formed within a first predetermined portion of the layer structure contiguous and continuous between a second predetermined portion of the layer structure at a first predetermined location on the substrate and a third predetermined portion of the layer structure at a second predetermined location on the substrate of which a predetermined portion supports propagation of an optical beam within a subset of the first predetermined portion of the layer structure; an optical component formed within a second predetermined portion of the layer structure in a third predetermined location on the substrate;
whereindeformation of the deformable structure results in the optical beam coupling to the optical component with at least one of a different orientation and a different position to that when the deformable structure is undeformed; the optical component properties are dependent on at least one of the orientation and position of the optical beam coupled to it. - View Dependent Claims (20)
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21. An optical device comprising:
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a three-dimensional (3D) waveguide coupled to a first end of a continuous structure that is deformable; an optical component coupled to a second distal end of the deformable structure;
whereinan optical beam coupled to the optical component from the 3D waveguide via the deformable structure has at least one of a different orientation and a different position with respect to the optical component to that when the deformable structure is undeformed; and the optical component properties are dependent on at least one of the orientation and position of the optical beam coupled to it.
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Specification