Optical apparatus with reduced effect of mirror edge diffraction
First Claim
1. A micromirror for use in an optical apparatus, comprising:
- a reflective portion, configured to be rotatable about a switching axis and an attenuation axis, wherein the attenuation axis is different from the switching axis,wherein the reflective portion includes an edge that is substantially parallel to the attenuation axis,wherein the edge includes one or more edge features that protrude above a plane of the micromirror surface and/or are submerged below the plane of the micromirror surface and/or have an edge shape that deviates from a straight line in a way that reduces an increase in signal intensity of a spectral channel near side edges of a passband for a spectral channel reflected from the micromirror relative to a central portion of the passband due to diffraction of that spectral channel from the edge when the spectral channel is attenuated by rotating the channel micromirror about the attenuation axis.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A micromirror for use in an optical apparatus may comprise a reflective portion, configured to be rotatable about a switching axis and an attenuation axis that is different from the switching axis. The reflective portion may include an edge that is substantially parallel to the attenuation axis. The edge may include one or more edge features that protrude above a plane of the micromirror surface and/or are submerged below the plane of the micromirror surface, and/or have an edge shape that deviates from a straight line. Alternatively, an array of micromirrors may have mirrors characterized by sawtooth features disposed along edges that are substantially parallel to the attenuation axis.
80 Citations
50 Claims
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1. A micromirror for use in an optical apparatus, comprising:
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a reflective portion, configured to be rotatable about a switching axis and an attenuation axis, wherein the attenuation axis is different from the switching axis, wherein the reflective portion includes an edge that is substantially parallel to the attenuation axis, wherein the edge includes one or more edge features that protrude above a plane of the micromirror surface and/or are submerged below the plane of the micromirror surface and/or have an edge shape that deviates from a straight line in a way that reduces an increase in signal intensity of a spectral channel near side edges of a passband for a spectral channel reflected from the micromirror relative to a central portion of the passband due to diffraction of that spectral channel from the edge when the spectral channel is attenuated by rotating the channel micromirror about the attenuation axis. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A micromirror apparatus for use in an optical apparatus, comprising:
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an array of two or more micromirrors, each micromirror of the array being rotatable about a switching axis and an attenuation axis, wherein the attenuation axis is different from the switching axis, wherein each micromirror of the array includes a reflective portion, wherein the reflective portion includes an edge that is substantially parallel to the attenuation axis, wherein the edge includes one or more edge features that protrude above a plane of the micromirror surface and/or are submerged below the plane of the micromirror surface, and/or have an edge shape that deviates from a straight line in a way that reduces an increase in signal intensity of a spectral channel near side edges of a passband for a spectral channel reflected from the micromirror relative to a central portion of the passband due to diffraction of that spectral channel from the edge when the spectral channel is attenuated by rotating the channel micromirror about the attenuation axis. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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43. Optical apparatus for switching multi-channel optical signals having spectral channels of different wavelengths, comprising:
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a plurality of input and output ports for optical signals having one or more of said spectral channels; an optical beam expander and relay system adapted to receive the optical signals from one or more of the input ports, the optical beam expander and relay system being configured to convert the optical signals to spectral beams having a predetermined elongated beam profile; a wavelength separator configured to spatially separate the spectral beams into constituent spectral channels; and an array of channel micromirrors, each channel micromirror of the array being positioned to receive one of said constituent spectral channels, the micromirrors being rotatable about a switching axis to switch said one spectral channel to a selected output port; wherein each channel micromirror is rotatable about an attenuation axis to vary a coupling of a corresponding spectral channel to the selected output port to control a power level of the spectral channel output at such selected port, wherein the attenuation axis is different from the switching axis, wherein one or more of the channel micromirrors includes an edge that is substantially parallel to the attenuation axis, wherein the edge includes one or more edge features that protrude above a plane of the micromirror surface and/or are submerged below the plane of the micromirror surface, and/or have an edge shape that deviates from a straight line in a way that reduces an increase in signal intensity of a spectral channel near side edges of a passband for a spectral channel reflected from the micromirror relative to a central portion of the passband due to diffraction of that spectral channel from the edge when the spectral channel is attenuated by rotating the channel micromirror about the attenuation axis. - View Dependent Claims (44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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Specification