Optical energy selector apparatus and method
First Claim
1. An optical selector comprising:
- a plurality of bidirectional first optical waveguides, each first optical waveguide having a plurality of first Bragg gratings that are tunable with respect to selectively defining wavelength bands of low transmissivity;
N bidirectional second optical waveguides, N being a number greater than one, said second optical waveguides including generally identical configurations of M second Bragg gratings that are tunable with respect to selectively defining wavelength bands of low transmissivity;
a bidirectional coupler optically coupling said first and second optical waveguides for enabling bidirectional optical transmissions between each of said first optical waveguides and each of said N second optical waveguides; and
at least one Bragg grating tuner connected to independently manipulate said tunable first and second Bragg gratings.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A channel selection method and apparatus accommodate the dynamic reconfiguration of channels that are passed through parallel waveguides by selectively tuning Bragg gratings along the waveguides. In the preferred embodiment, the waveguides are output optical fibers connected to an optical splitter having an input of a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical signal. The number of channels in the WDM signal is equal to the number of output fibers, which is in turn equal to the number of tunable Bragg gratings along each of the output fibers. The series of Bragg gratings on a particular output fiber is structurally identical to the other series, with each tunable Bragg grating being dedicated to passing or rejecting one of the channels of the WDM signal. Thus, the series of Bragg gratings along a particular output fiber may be tuned to isolate any of the channels or may be tuned to pass two or more channels. In addition to use in a demultiplexing application, the method and apparatus may be used in a multiplexing application to enable channel selection along each of a number of different input waveguides.
47 Citations
10 Claims
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1. An optical selector comprising:
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a plurality of bidirectional first optical waveguides, each first optical waveguide having a plurality of first Bragg gratings that are tunable with respect to selectively defining wavelength bands of low transmissivity; N bidirectional second optical waveguides, N being a number greater than one, said second optical waveguides including generally identical configurations of M second Bragg gratings that are tunable with respect to selectively defining wavelength bands of low transmissivity; a bidirectional coupler optically coupling said first and second optical waveguides for enabling bidirectional optical transmissions between each of said first optical waveguides and each of said N second optical waveguides; and at least one Bragg grating tuner connected to independently manipulate said tunable first and second Bragg gratings. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6)
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7. A method for isolating optical carriers in an optical selector having pluralities of first bidirectional waveguides and second bidirectional waveguides comprising the steps of:
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providing a plurality of tunable first filter gratings along each first waveguide; inputting first optical signals having a plurality of optical carriers into first ends of each said first waveguide; splitting optical energy of said first optical signals at second ends of said first waveguides, thereby forming a plurality of split first optical signals; routing said split first optical signals into said plurality of second waveguides; selectively tuning said wavelength tunable first filter gratings such that said routed split first optical signals are a selected arrangement of target optical carriers; providing a plurality of tunable second filter gratings along each said second waveguide; inputting second optical signals having a plurality of optical carriers into first ends of said second waveguides; splitting optical energy of said second optical signals at second ends of said second waveguides, thereby forming a plurality of split second optical signals; routing said split second optical signals to said plurality of first waveguides; and selectively tuning said tunable second filter gratings such that said routed split second optical signals are a selected arrangement of target optical carriers. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10)
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Specification