Patents Examined by Rodney Bovernick
  • Patent number: 7239763
    Abstract: An optical SSB modulator capable of appropriately adjusting a phase difference of light in the MZ waveguides and automatically adjusting a voltage impressed to the bias adjustment electrodes is provided. The above-mentioned object is achieved by an optical SSB modulator (1) provided with a first sub Mach-Zehnder waveguide (MZA) (2), a second sub Mach-Zehnder waveguide (MZB) (3), a main Mach-Zehnder waveguide (MZC) (4), a first bias adjustment electrode (DCA electrode) (5), a second bias adjustment electrode (DCB electrode) (6), a first modulation electrode (RFA electrode) (7), a second modulation electrode (RFB electrode) (8) and a third bias adjustment electrode (DCC electrode) (9), wherein either one of or both of output portions (10, 11) of the MZA and the MZB have an X-branching form, and specifically having one of light paths of the X-branching connected to a photodetector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignees: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Incorporated Administrative Agency, Sumitomo Osaka Cement Co., Ltd
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kawanishi, Masayuki Izutsu, Kaoru Higuma, Shingo Mori
  • Patent number: 7239766
    Abstract: A sensing element, a method of making a sensing element, and a fiber optic sensor incorporating the sensing element are described. The sensor can be used for the quantitative detection of NO2 in a mixture of gases. The sensing element can be made by incorporating a diazotizing reagent which reacts with nitrous ions to produce a diazo compound and a coupling reagent which couples with the diazo compound to produce an azo dye into a sol and allowing the sol to form an optically transparent gel. The sensing element changes color in the presence of NO2 gas. The temporal response of the absorption spectrum at various NO2 concentrations has also been recorded and analyzed. Sensors having different design configurations are described. The sensing element can detect NO2 gas at levels of parts per billion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 27, 2003
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Mississippi State University
    Inventors: Shelly John Mechery, Jagdish P. Singh
  • Patent number: 7239768
    Abstract: A integrated optical circuit comprises an interferometer having a first optical path and a second optical path configured for regenerating an input signal entering the first path by interference at a first coupler between continuous wave (CW) signals from the two optical paths, and a third optical path configured such that a canceling signal passing therethrough cancels, at a second coupler, a traveling signal from the first arm. When the device is operated in a counter-propagative mode, the traveling signal is the CW signal from the first arm. When the device is operated in a co-propagative mode, the traveling signal is the input signal from the first arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 2, 2005
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Alphion Corporation
    Inventors: Ganesh Lakshminarayana, Jithamithra Sarathy, Boris Stefanov
  • Patent number: 7239779
    Abstract: A broadband optical via provides a low loss interconnection between waveguides in two vertically adjacent planar waveguiding layers. Two waveguides, one in each planar layer, evanescently interact over an interaction length, and substantially all of the power on one waveguide is transferred to the second waveguide. The relative detuning between waveguides is varied along the interaction region by tapering the width of one or both guides along the direction of propagation. The interaction strength is also varied by varying the physical separation between the two waveguides such that the interaction approaches zero near the two ends of the interaction length. The performance of the broadband optical via is fabrication tolerant, polarization tolerant, wavelength tolerant, and dimensionally tolerant.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 3, 2007
    Assignee: Infinera Corporation
    Inventor: Brent E. Little
  • Patent number: 7236663
    Abstract: A display element is provided with a light source and a waveguide that propagates a light emitted from the light source, wherein the light propagated in the waveguide is extracted to outside from a waveguide lateral face, and wherein the light is extracted out of the waveguide from the waveguide lateral face by changing a shape of the waveguide lateral face.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 4, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 26, 2007
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Naohide Wakita, Seiji Nishiyama
  • Patent number: 7232260
    Abstract: A ferrule holder and a coil spring are provided in a main body formed in an approximately tube shape. A cable adaptor including a front opening part at a large diameter part is inserted from a back opening part into the main body having slits and. A first small diameter part of the main body fits with the large diameter part of the cable adaptor and prevents the cable adaptor from translating in the z-axis direction. And the second small diameter part of the main body controls transfer of the ferrule holder in the z-axis direction. At the forward part of the large diameter, a taper part which helps to insert the cable adaptor is formed around the circuit of the optical axis. Each slit formed at the back opening part also helps to insert the cable adaptor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Canare Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Tetsuo Takahashi, Manabu Komatsubara
  • Patent number: 7233711
    Abstract: A sensor includes traps that are adjacent to a waveguide and capable of holding a contaminant for an interaction with an evanescent field surrounding the waveguide. When held in a trap, a particle of the contaminant, which may be an atom, a molecule, a virus, or a microbe, scatters light from the waveguide, and the scattered light can be measured to detect the presence or concentration of the contaminant. Holding of the particles permits sensing of the contaminant in a gas where movement of the particles might otherwise be too fast to permit measurement of the interaction with the evanescent field. The waveguide, a lighting system for the waveguide, a photosensor, and a communications interface can all be fabricated on a semiconductor die to permit fabrication of an autonomous nanosensor capable of suspension in the air or a gas being sensed.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 11, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Hewlett Packard Development Company, L.P.
    Inventors: Raymond G. Beausoleil, Philip J. Kuekes, R. Stanley Williams
  • Patent number: 7233714
    Abstract: Provided is a planar optical waveguide circuit type variable attenuator capable of light attenuation by an arbitrary value in a range from 0 to 10 dB and also by not less than 30 dB, which is small-sized and is of power saving type. The attenuator is composed of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer circuit 30 having input waveguides 1a, 1b and an output waveguide 1d which are formed on an optical waveguide layer 3, and comprises a slit 12 formed on the waveguide layer in a longitudinally intermediate part of at least one of the optical waveguides 1a, 1b, 1d and in a direction crossing the optical waveguides 1a, 1b, 1d, and matching medium displacing means 16a, 16b for displacing index-matching medium 13 in a part of the slit 12 from a position including a path of propagation light in the optical waveguides 1a, 1b, 1d, and a position retracted from the path of propagation light.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 13, 2006
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: The Furukawa Electric Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hiroshi Kawashima, Kazutaka Nara
  • Patent number: 7232263
    Abstract: A substrate on which cavities having floors and steps is provided. End faces of a light-emitting device, an optical component, and an optical transmission line are abutted on one of the cavity for positioning, and end faces of a light-receiving device, an optical component, and an optical transmission line are also abutted on the other cavity for positioning. Integrated alignment of optical axes facilitates alignment of optical axes, and thus eliminates the need of a CAN package. Accordingly, the size and height of an optical communications module can be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 12, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 19, 2007
    Assignee: Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Nobuo Sashinaka, Kazunari Nishihara, Tetsuya Tsurunari, Naoki Yuda
  • Patent number: 7231115
    Abstract: Disclosed is an optical collimator-use lens component including: a thin tube; a partially spherical lens that has been fixed in an inner hole of the thin tube so that an insertion portion having a predetermined length is left, is made of glass whose refractive index is approximately uniform, and has translucent spherical surfaces, whose centers of curvature are approximately the same, at both ends of a cylindrical portion of the partially spherical lens; and an adhesive that bonds the partially spherical lens to the thin tube. An axial deviation amount between a center axis of the thin tube and an optical axis of the partially spherical lens is 5 ?m or less. When a capillary tube, in whose inner hole an optical fiber has been fixed and whose axial deviation amount between an outer peripheral surface of the capillary tube and a core center of an end surface of the optical fiber is 1.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 21, 2003
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Nippon Electric Glass Co. Ltd.
    Inventors: Tadashi Seto, Masaaki Kadomi, Hirokazu Tanaka, Hirokazu Takeuchi, Shintaro Ito
  • Patent number: 7231107
    Abstract: A flexible wavelength switch fabric may be implemented with multiple groups of reconfigurable blocking filters or with multiple multi-in, single out wavelength selective switches. The behaviors of reconfigurable blocking filters are individually settable, such as channel blocking, channel spacing, transmission rate, and default blocking state. Add and drop taps may be added to provide arbitrary add/drop capability. Optical splitters/combiners used may be tunable so that insertion losses may be minimized for the overall network.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Ciena Corporation
    Inventors: Shan Zhong, Jean-Luc Archambault
  • Patent number: 7231127
    Abstract: Optical waveguide devices that include a polymer clad and a polymer core where the clad includes constitutional units contributed by (a) a monomer selected from the group consisting of a halocatechol diacrylate, a haloresorcinol diacrylate, and a haldhydroquinone diacrylate, and/or (b) a charge transport moiety.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 12, 2007
    Assignee: Lumera Corporation
    Inventor: Dan L. Jin
  • Patent number: 7221824
    Abstract: An optical head for equipping the distal end of a flexible optical fiber bundle, designed to be urged into contact with an analyzing surface and including optical elements for focusing an excitation signal into a so-called excitation focal point located at a specific depth beneath the analyzing surface and for sampling a signal backscattered by the excitation focal point which is carried back by the fiber bundle. The head includes an optics-holder tube wherein are inserted on one side the distal end portion of the fiber bundle and on the other optical elements, the latter including a plate placed in contact with the end of the fiber bundle whereof the index is close to that of the fiber core and a focusing optical block, an output window being further provided adapted to provide index adaptation so as to eliminate parasitic reflection occurring on the analyzing surface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: May 22, 2007
    Assignee: Mauna Kea Technologies
    Inventors: Frederic Berier, Stephane Bourriaux, Magalie Genet, Bertrand Viellerobe, Alexandre Loiseau, Benjamin Abrat
  • Patent number: 7218819
    Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide an electrode system for optical modulation of an optical modulator to reduce a thickness “E” of an electrode required for velocity matching and for reducing a propagation loss in the electrode. A substrate 2 is made of an electrooptic material and has one and the other main faces 2a, 2b opposing each other. An electrode system 20A is provided on the substrate 2 for applying a voltage for modulating light propagating in optical waveguides 6A and 6B. The electrode system 20A includes ground electrodes 3A, 3B and a signal electrode 4. A ratio “W/G” of a width “W” of the signal electrode 4 to a gap “G” between the ground and signal electrodes is 0.8 or higher. Preferably, the substrate 2 has a thickness “T” of 20 ?m or larger, in a region where the optical waveguides 6A and 6B are provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: May 15, 2007
    Assignee: NGK Insulators, Ltd.
    Inventors: Kenji Aoki, Osamu Mitomi, Jungo Kondo, Atsuo Kondo
  • Patent number: 7215850
    Abstract: A waveguide plate and a process for making the waveguide plate with a plate-like glass substrate (1), carrying a waveguiding layer (2), with at least one coupling grating on the surface carrying said waveguiding layer (2), which coupling grating is formed as a grating of lines with a period between 150 nm and 1000 nm, the extension of said grating being at least 5 cm with lines parallel to one another, wherein the coupling angle (?) varies by not more than 0.1°/cm along a line of said grating and wherein the absolute value of the deviation of the coupling angle (?) on said waveguide plate, from a predefined desired value, does not exceed 0.5°. The deviation from the average value of the coupling angle does not exceed 0.3°, preferably not 0.15° on the whole waveguide plate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 23, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 8, 2007
    Assignees: OC Oerlikon Balzers AG, Zeptosens AG
    Inventors: Bernd Maisenhoelder, Johannes Edlinger, Claus Heine, Michael Pawlak, Gert Duveneck
  • Patent number: 7209622
    Abstract: Provided is a resonator using a three-dimensional photonic crystal. In the resonator, a range of choice of a resonance wavelength is wide and a desirable electric field distribution is obtained. The resonator according to the present invention includes a plurality of point defects provided in the three-dimensional photonic crystal. At least one of the plurality of point defects does not include a eigenmode in a photonic band gap of the three-dimensional photonic crystal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 5, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2007
    Assignee: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha
    Inventors: Hikaru Hoshi, Akinari Takagi, Kiyokatsu Ikemoto, Kazuya Nobayashi
  • Patent number: 7209607
    Abstract: Optical switch matrix having at least an input matrix port defining at least a row of the matrix, a plurality of output matrix ports defining columns of the matrix, a plurality of switching elements, each one being disposed at the intersection of at least one row and one of the columns. Each switch element in a predetermined position of the matrix, in an activated condition, connects an input matrix port to an output matrix port, the ports being correspondents respectively to the predetermined position of the matrix.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2001
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2007
    Assignee: Pirelli & C. S.p.A.
    Inventors: Mario Martinelli, Andrea Paganini, Silvia Maria Pietralunga, Andrea Zappettini
  • Patent number: 7206472
    Abstract: Optical backplanes providing integrated optical couplers to external optical fibers are disclosed, along with methods for making the same. An exemplary optical backplane has a first cladding layer disposed over the top surface of a substrate, and at least a first core body disposed over the first cladding layer, with the first core body having a first end and a second end. A material layer is disposed above the first cladding layer and the first end of the first core body, with the material layer having a top surface and a bottom surface. A focusing element is formed at the top surface of the material layer, with the focusing element being located above the first end of the first core body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 15, 2005
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2007
    Assignee: Fujitsu Ltd.
    Inventors: Lidu Huang, Kishio Yokouchi
  • Patent number: 7204648
    Abstract: An impedance-matching electrical connection system, for use with high-frequency communication signals, includes a circuit board and a plurality of contact pads mounted on the circuit board. The contact pads are for coupling with a plurality of complementary connectors of an external electrical device. Each coupling is associated with an excess shunt capacitance. The electrical connection system further includes a plurality of inductive traces mounted on the circuit board, each of which is connected to a respective contact pad, and is associated with a compensating series inductance. Additionally, the electrical connection system includes a plurality of signal lines mounted on the circuit board, each of which is connected to a respective inductive trace. Each inductive trace is configured so that its associated compensating series inductance substantially offsets the excess shunt capacitance associated with the coupling between the contact pad connected to the inductive trace and a complementary connector.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 1, 2002
    Date of Patent: April 17, 2007
    Assignee: Finisar Corporation
    Inventor: Lewis B. Aronson
  • Patent number: 7203408
    Abstract: An optical fibre having an NA-value of less than 0.34, which optical fibre is built up of a core and an enveloping protective coating, wherein the protective coating forms the outer layer of the optical fibre, which optical fibre has an NA-value ranging from 0.15 to 0.30, with the overall external diameter of the optical fibre corresponding to the internal diameter of an element into which the end of the optical fibre is inserted.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 2, 2004
    Date of Patent: April 10, 2007
    Assignee: Draka Fibre Technology B.V.
    Inventors: Pieter Matthijsse, Myrna Boon