Patents by Inventor Christopher Doerr

Christopher Doerr has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 7782520
    Abstract: Duobinary and NRZ modulation of an X-Gb/s optical signal is achieved with a lumped element InP Mach-Zehnder device configured to operate at X/k-Gb/s where k>1 and arranged in a push-pull configuration.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: August 24, 2010
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventors: Andrew Adamiecki, Sethumadhavan Chandrasekhar, Christopher Doerr, David Nielson, Peter Winzer
  • Patent number: 7733562
    Abstract: A method of optically equalizing a multi-level (amplitude or phase) optical signal through the effect of an optical equalizer wherein the optical equalizer (OEQ) is placed at either a transmission end or a receiver end of the optical communications link and a tap delay characteristic of the OEQ need not be determined by symbol spacing, rather it may advantageously be adjusted to desirably compensate non-linear mapping performed in the modulation process or simultaneous operation on a plurality of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channels.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 29, 2007
    Date of Patent: June 8, 2010
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Alan Gnauck, Gregory Raybon, Peter Winzer
  • Patent number: 7724991
    Abstract: A compact optical receiver exhibiting polarization-diversity and employing an arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 2009
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2010
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 7711222
    Abstract: A colorless tunable optical dispersion compensator (TODC) comprising a silica arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) directly coupled to a polymer thermo-optic lens. As a result of its inventive construction, the device exhibits low loss, large tuning range, low electrical consumption and is readily manufactured using standard processes. Additionally, the TODC is fully solid-state and scales to a large figure-of-merit (dispersion range times bandwidth squared).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 4, 2010
    Assignees: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc., Gemfire Corporation
    Inventors: Robert Blum, Hindrik Bulthius, Christopher Doerr
  • Patent number: 7706648
    Abstract: A tunable optical dispersion compensator (TODC) having a silica arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) directly coupled at its input to a Mach-Zehnder interferometer device and at its output to a polymer thermo-optic lens.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 24, 2007
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Publication number: 20100027939
    Abstract: An optical apparatus including a 360-degree star coupler with derivative structure(s) and applications to optical imaging, optical communications and optical spectroscopy.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 1, 2008
    Publication date: February 4, 2010
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventor: Christopher DOERR
  • Publication number: 20090116789
    Abstract: A tunable optical dispersion compensator (TODC) having a silica arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) directly coupled at its input to a Mach-Zehnder interferometer device and at its output to a polymer thermo-optic lens.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2007
    Publication date: May 7, 2009
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventor: Christopher DOERR
  • Publication number: 20090074426
    Abstract: A monolithic, Indium Phosphide (InP) differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) or differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) receiver that exhibits low polarization sensitivity.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 14, 2007
    Publication date: March 19, 2009
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventor: Christopher DOERR
  • Patent number: 7433549
    Abstract: A high-speed optical modulator constructed from a number of lower speed intensity modulators integrated onto a single optical chip.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 30, 2007
    Date of Patent: October 7, 2008
    Assignee: Lucent Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Peter Winzer
  • Publication number: 20080231933
    Abstract: A driving circuit and Mach-Zehnder EAM optical modulator exhibiting negligible chirp that generates a PSK signal when driven by a single drive signal. Two such Mach-Zehnder EAM optical modulators and drive circuits may be configured in parallel, thereby generating DQPSK signals with only two drive signals, one for each individual Mach-Zehnder EAM modulator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 24, 2007
    Publication date: September 25, 2008
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventor: Christopher DOERR
  • Publication number: 20080231944
    Abstract: A method of optically equalizing a multi-level (amplitude or phase) optical signal through the effect of an optical equalizer wherein the optical equalizer (OEQ) is placed at either a transmission end or a receiver end of the optical communications link and a tap delay characteristic of the OEQ need not be determined by symbol spacing, rather it may advantageously be adjusted to desirably compensate non-linear mapping performed in the modulation process or simultaneous operation on a plurality of wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) channels.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 29, 2007
    Publication date: September 25, 2008
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventors: Christopher DOERR, Alan GNAUCK, Gregory RAYBON, Peter WINZER
  • Patent number: 7403682
    Abstract: A dispersion compensation apparatus employing an arrayed-waveguide-grating (AWG) which exhibits a dispersion slope.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2007
    Date of Patent: July 22, 2008
    Assignee: Lucent Technologies Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Publication number: 20080158643
    Abstract: Duobinary and NRZ modulation of an X-Gb/s optical signal is achieved with a lumped element InP Mach-Zehnder device configured to operate at X/k-Gb/s where k>1 and arranged in a push-pull configuration.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Publication date: July 3, 2008
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventors: Andrew Adamiecki, Sethumadhavan Chandrasekhar, Christopher Doerr, David Neilson, Peter Winzer
  • Patent number: 7373039
    Abstract: A low-ripple optical device comprising an optical demultiplexer structure and an optical multiplexer structure cascaded together wherein one of the structures exhibits n passband maxima and the other device exhibits n+1 passband maxima.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 28, 2006
    Date of Patent: May 13, 2008
    Assignee: Lucent Technologies Inc.
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Publication number: 20080069492
    Abstract: A high-speed optical modulator constructed from a number of lower speed intensity modulators integrated onto a single optical chip.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2007
    Publication date: March 20, 2008
    Applicant: LUCENT TECHNOLOGIES INC.
    Inventors: Christopher DOERR, Peter WINZER
  • Publication number: 20070253055
    Abstract: A polarization-diverse optical amplifier includes a polarization-sensitive optically active medium and a polarization splitter. The polarization splitter is configured to receive input light, to direct a first polarization component of the received input light to a first optical path segment, and to direct a second polarization component of the received input light to a separate second optical path segment. The active medium has first and second optical ports. The first optical port is at an end of the first optical path segment. The second port is at an end of the second optical path segment. The active medium outputs amplified light from one of the ports in response to receiving the input light at the other of the ports. In a preferred embodiment, the active medium has an internal optical axis, and the polarizations of the first and second components are oriented relative to that axis so that amplification is enhanced. The two optical path segments may include polarization-maintaining optical waveguides.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 26, 2006
    Publication date: November 1, 2007
    Inventors: Aref Chowdhury, Christopher Doerr, Gregory Raybon
  • Publication number: 20070166048
    Abstract: A WDM communication system having two optical-frequency comb sources (OFCSs) that are substantially phase-locked to one another, with one of these OFCSs used at a transmitter to produce a WDM communication signal and the other OFCS used at a receiver to produce multiple local-oscillator signals suitable for homodyne detection of the WDM communication signal received from the transmitter. In one embodiment, the transmitter has (i) a first OFCS adapted to generate a first frequency comb and (ii) an optical modulator adapted to use the first frequency comb to generate a WDM communication signal for transmission to the receiver, this WDM signal having at least two beacon lines. The receiver has a second OFCS adapted to produce a second frequency comb such that the second frequency comb has at least two comb lines having the beacon frequencies, the phases of which comb lines are locked to the phases of the beacon lines of the received WDM signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 17, 2006
    Publication date: July 19, 2007
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Peter Winzer
  • Publication number: 20070140618
    Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for manipulating light beams propagated through an optical apparatus that includes a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) and free-space optics unit. A multi-wave optical signal coupled to the PLC is propagated through a first and second waveguide array to generate a phased array output at an edge facet of the PLC. The phased array output at the edge facet is spatially Fourier transformed by the lens to generate a spectrally resolved image having a discrete light spot for each channel of the input optical signal, which is coupled to a pixelated optical receiving unit. When the optical receiving unit is a reflector, one or more of the discrete light spot are reflected to a desired waveguide array of a PLC to produce a desired output. When the optical receiving unit is a pixelated transmissive modulator, one or more of the discrete light spot are modulated as they pass through the modulator.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 6, 2005
    Publication date: June 21, 2007
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, Dan Marom
  • Publication number: 20070133632
    Abstract: A mode-locked laser that has an optical cavity containing multiple optical amplifiers, each dedicated to a respective spectral portion of an optical signal generated by the laser, wherein the dispersion effects are managed by utilizing a separate intra-cavity phase tuner for each such spectral portion and/or by having appropriately configured waveguides corresponding to different spectral portions. Advantageously, a relatively wide combined gain spectrum provided by the optical amplifiers and the intra-cavity dispersion compensation provided by the phase tuners and/or waveguides enable this laser to realize a mode-locking regime that results in the emission of an optical pulse train having a relatively wide frequency spectrum.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 8, 2005
    Publication date: June 14, 2007
    Inventor: Christopher Doerr
  • Publication number: 20070098325
    Abstract: A proposed integrateable optical interleaver includes an input Y-branch coupler and at least two multi-section optical couplers. The multi-section optical couplers of the interleaver include at least three substantially similar optical couplers, adjacent ones of the optical couplers interconnected via at least one set of waveguides. The interleaver of the present invention comprises a highly compact and fabrication-robust form that is capable of being integrated onto a single planar lightwave circuit.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2006
    Publication date: May 3, 2007
    Inventors: Christopher Doerr, David Levy