Abstract: A creel system includes a plurality of tension controller apparatuses that hold spools of wire. The tension controller apparatuses apply tension to the wire and may be manipulated to fine-tune or control the tension applied to the wire. The creel system may further include a plurality of sensors that measure operation of the creel system as well as the condition of the wire. In such embodiments, the creel system may include a user-interface that provides data to the operator in real time and with which the operator may interact to control operation of the creel system.

Abstract: Various methods and devices are provided for allowing multiple surgical instruments to be inserted into sealing elements of a single surgical access device. The sealing elements can be movable along predefined pathways within the device to allow surgical instruments inserted through the sealing elements to be moved laterally, rotationally, angularly, and vertically relative to a central longitudinal axis of the device for ease of manipulation within a patient's body while maintaining insufflation.

Abstract: A surgical stapler, or fastening instrument, may generally comprise a layer, such as a tissue thickness compensator, for example, releasably attached to a fastener cartridge and/or anvil by a flowable attachment portion. The flowable attachment portion may be indefinitely flowable. The flowable attachment portion may be flowable from the time that layer is installed to the fastener cartridge to the time in which the layer is implanted to patient tissue. The flowable attachment portion may comprise a pressure sensitive adhesive. The flowable attachment portion may comprise an adhesive laminate comprising a base layer comprising the tissue thickness compensator and an adhesive layer on at least a portion of a surface of the base layer comprising the pressure sensitive adhesive. Articles of manufacture comprising flowable attachment portion and methods of making and using the flowable attachment portion are also described.

Abstract: An active optical cable is provided that incorporates a power management solution. The AOC has plugs are configured to mate with respective USB sockets. The AOC is used to interconnect a USB host with a USB device. To the USB host and to the USB device, the AOC appears to be a standard USB electrical cable. Each of the plugs of the AOC has an optical-to-electrical and an electrical-to-optical (OE/EO) conversion module that converts electrical USB signals output from the USB host or USB device into optical signals and converts optical signals carried on the optical fibers of the AOC into electrical USB signals. The plugs include controllers that monitor certain conditions of the AOC and that select the power levels to be used in the plugs based on detected conditions.

Abstract: An active optical cable is provided that incorporates a power management solution. The AOC has plugs are configured to mate with respective USB sockets. The AOC is used to interconnect a USB host with a USB device. To the USB host and to the USB device, the AOC appears to be a standard USB electrical cable. Each of the plugs of the AOC has an optical-to-electrical and an electrical-to-optical (OE/EO) conversion module that converts electrical USB signals output from the USB host or USB device into optical signals and converts optical signals carried on the optical fibers of the AOC into electrical USB signals. The plugs include controllers that monitor certain conditions of the AOC and that select the power levels to be used in the plugs based on detected conditions.

Abstract: A parallel optical transceiver module is provided that has a balanced laser driver arrangement. The balanced laser driver arrangement of the invention includes at least two laser diode driver ICs, which preferably are located on opposite sides of a laser diode IC. Each laser diode driver IC drives a subset (e.g., half) of the total number of laser diodes of the laser diode IC. Because each laser diode driver IC drives a subset of the total number of laser diodes of the laser diode IC, the pitch (i.e., distance) between the high-speed signal pathways within the laser diode driver ICs can be increased. Increasing the pitch between the high-speed signal pathways provides several advantages, including, for example, reducing the potential for electrical cross-talk and inductive coupling between adjacent wire bonds that connect the output driver pads on the driver IC to the respective input pads on the laser diode IC.

Abstract: An active optical cable is provided that incorporates a power management solution. The AOC has plugs that are configured to mate with respective USB sockets. The AOC is used to interconnect a USB host with a USB device. To the USB host and to the USB device, the AOC appears to be a standard USB electrical cable. Each of the plugs of the AOC has an optical-to-electrical and an electrical-to-optical (OE/EO) conversion module that converts electrical USB signals output from the USB host or USB device into optical signals and converts optical signals carried on the optical fibers of the AOC into electrical USB signals. The plugs include controllers that monitor certain conditions of the AOC and that select the power levels to be used in the plugs based on detected conditions.

Abstract: An open loop gain adjustment method and apparatus are provided for adjusting the gain of a TIA of an optical RX module based on measurements of the BER of the optical link in which the optical RX module is employed. The gain of the TIA is adjusted until a determination is made that a satisfactory or optimum link BER has been achieved.

Abstract: An FFE/DFE equalizer is provided that uses unclocked FIR filters. At least one of the unclocked FIR filters has tunable delay cells that can be tuned to adjust their respective time delay time periods. Because the FIR filters of the FFE/DFE equalizer are unclocked, the complexity and die area associated with clocking circuits are avoided, thereby enabling costs to be reduced. Because the delay cells of at least one of the FIR filters are tunable to enable their respective time delay periods to be adjusted, very good equalizer performance is achieved without having to use clocked circuits. In addition, because clocked circuits are not used in the FIR filters, the need for clocking circuits to control the timing of clocked circuits is obviated, which leads to a reduction in the amount of power consumed by the FFE/DFE equalizer.

Abstract: An active optical cable is provided that incorporates a power management solution. The AOC has plugs that are configured to mate with respective USB sockets. The AOC is used to interconnect a USB host with a USB device. To the USB host and to the USB device, the AOC appears to be a standard USB electrical cable. Each of the plugs of the AOC has an optical-to-electrical and an electrical-to-optical (OE/EO) conversion module that converts electrical USB signals output from the USB host or USB device into optical signals and converts optical signals carried on the optical fibers of the AOC into electrical USB signals. The plugs include controllers that monitor certain conditions of the AOC and that select the power levels to be used in the plugs based on detected conditions.

Abstract: An open loop gain adjustment method and apparatus are provided for adjusting the gain of a TIA of an optical RX module based on measurements of the BER of the optical link in which the optical RX module is employed. The gain of the TIA is adjusted until a determination is made that a satisfactory or optimum link BER has been achieved.

Abstract: A signal transmission system in accordance with the invention is implemented using a dual-purpose pin of an optical sub-assembly. The dual-purpose pin is used to propagate an analog signal out of the optical sub-assembly and also for providing an access point where an external element may be coupled to the optical sub-assembly for modulating the analog signal. The optical sub-assembly houses a photodetector, a signal transmitter circuit, and a signal receiver circuit. The photodetector receives light and generates a corresponding electrical signal indicative of the light intensity. The signal transmitter circuit converts the electrical signal received from the photodetector into the analog signal that is transmitted out of the dual-purpose pin. The signal receiver circuit located inside the optical sub-assembly is configured to monitor the modulated analog signal from the dual-purpose pin and generate therefrom, a control signal inside the optical sub-assembly.

Abstract: A semi-open feedback loop optical output power control apparatus and method are provided for use in an optical TX. The apparatus and method enable input data signals having content frequencies that are below the cutoff frequency of the optical output power monitoring and control feedback loop to be utilized. This is accomplished at least in part by opening and closing (i.e., is disabling and enabling) the feedback loop based on whether or not one or more transitions in the input data signal to the optical TX from a logic 0 to a logic 1, or vice versa, are detected within a predetermined timing interval. In addition, the apparatus and method provide these and other advantages without causing the optical TX to have an increased link startup settling time period. The feedback loop has a low pass filter (LPF) that has a selectable bandwidth.

Abstract: Methods and apparatuses are provided for performing jitter measurements in a transceiver module. Accordingly, there is no need to use expensive test equipment that must be inserted into and removed from the network in order to obtain these measurements. In addition, because the measurements can be obtained at any time without any interruption in communications over the network, jitter performance can be monitored more closely and more frequently to facilitate better and earlier diagnosis of problems that can lead to failures in the network.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method are provided for adaptively adjusting the impulse response of the optical output of the laser of the optical TX in a way that ensures that the optical waveform being transmitted from the optical TX into the optical waveguide of the optical link has a desired waveform shape that improves or optimizes the performance of the optical link across variations in temperature, power supply, laser process corners, IC process corners, component aging, mechanical manufacturing tolerances, and part alignment tolerances. Adaptively adjusting the impulse response of the optical signal output from the laser in this way allows the optical TX to dynamically adapt to and compensate for a wide range of factors that typically cause performance degradation and result in reduced product yields, increased testing times, and increased test complexity, and higher costs.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided that enable a direct current (DC) offset cancellation (OC) feedback control loop of an optical TX or optical RX to be opened and closed and the bandwidth (BW) of the loop to be adjusted based on a status of an input signal to the RX or TX. Opening and closing the loop and adjusting the BW of the loop allows lower data rates to be achieved and allows relatively long patterns of consecutive 1s or 0s to be transmitted or received without being cancelled out due to the low cutoff frequency of the loop. In addition, opening and closing the loop and adjusting its BW allows the foregoing advantages to be realized without causing an increase in the startup settling time period or in the signal detection time period of the optical TX or RX.

Abstract: A semi-open feedback loop optical output power control apparatus and method are provided for use in an optical TX. The apparatus and method enable input data signals having content frequencies that are below the cutoff frequency of the optical output power monitoring and control feedback loop to be utilized. This is accomplished at least in part by opening and closing (i.e., is disabling and enabling) the feedback loop based on whether or not one or more transitions in the input data signal to the optical TX from a logic 0 to a logic 1, or vice versa, are detected within a predetermined timing interval. In addition, the apparatus and method provide these and other advantages without causing the optical TX to have an increased link startup settling time period. The feedback loop has a low pass filter (LPF) that has a selectable bandwidth.

Abstract: Laser modulation is controlled by using a measurement of the average output power level of the laser to adjust the amplitude of the modulation current as necessary to prevent the laser from being over- or under-modulated and to adjust the amplitude of the bias current as necessary to maintain the average output power level of the laser at a desired, reasonably constant level. The laser controller receives an electrical feedback signal from a laser output power monitoring device and uses this signal to obtain the measurement of the average output power level of the laser. Based on this measurement, a bias current control signal and a modulation current control signal are generated and output to the laser driver to cause the laser driver to set the amplitude of the bias current to achieve a desired average output power level and to set the amplitude of the modulation current to prevent over- and under-modulation.

Abstract: An FFE/DFE equalizer is provided that uses unclocked FIR filters. At least one of the unclocked FIR filters has tunable delay cells that can be tuned to adjust their respective time delay time periods. Because the FIR filters of the FFE/DFE equalizer are unclocked, the complexity and die area associated with clocking circuits are avoided, thereby enabling costs to be reduced. Because the delay cells of at least one of the FIR filters are tunable to enable their respective time delay periods to be adjusted, very good equalizer performance is achieved without having to use clocked circuits. In addition, because clocked circuits are not used in the FIR filters, the need for clocking circuits to control the timing of clocked circuits is obviated, which leads to a reduction in the amount of power consumed by the FFE/DFE equalizer.

Abstract: A parallel optical transceiver module is provided that has a balanced laser driver arrangement. The balanced laser driver arrangement of the invention includes at least two laser diode driver ICs, which preferably are located on opposite sides of a laser diode IC. Each laser diode driver IC drives a subset (e.g., half) of the total number of laser diodes of the laser diode IC. Because each laser diode driver IC drives a subset of the total number of laser diodes of the laser diode IC, the pitch (i.e., distance) between the high-speed signal pathways within the laser diode driver ICs can be increased. Increasing the pitch between the high-speed signal pathways provides several advantages, including, for example, reducing the potential for electrical cross-talk and inductive coupling between adjacent wire bonds that connect the output driver pads on the driver IC to the respective input pads on the laser diode IC.