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US 2002/0159690 A1Published application
Optical multiplexer/demultiplexer with three waveguides
AssigneeAlcatel
InventorsAnatolic Lupu, Alain Carenco
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AssigneeAlcatel
InventorsAnatolic Lupu, Alain Carenco
Estimating the term…
The invention relates to an optical multiplexer/demultiplexer able to combine and/or separate at least two optical signals amongst n propagating at different wavelengths, characterized in that it comprises at least one central waveguide (4) and two lateral waveguides (5, 6), each lateral waveguide (5 and 6) constituting with the central guide (4) a pair of waveguides, each pair being disposed so as to allow a bidirectional evanescent coupling of an associated wavelength between the guides in each pair (4, 5) and (4, 6), the coupling being selective with respect to wavelength and assisted by at least one etched grating (Λ), the said waveguides (4, 5, 6) being designed so that the multiplexer/demultiplexer has a functioning independent of the state of polarization of the signals. The present invention applies to optical filters and/or direct-access networks for a bidirectional communication in the 1.3±μm window simultaneously with a video distribution at 1.5 μm.
An optical multiplexer/demultiplexer able to combine and/or separate at least two optical signals amongst n propagating at different wavelengths, characterised in that it comprises at least one central waveguide (4) and two lateral waveguides (5, 6), each lateral waveguide (5 and 6) constituting with the central guide (4) a pair of waveguides, each pair being disposed so as to allow a bidirectional evanescent coupling of an associated wavelength between the guides in each pair (4, 5) and (4, 6), the coupling being selective with respect to wavelength and assisted by at least one etched grating (Λ), the said waveguides (4, 5, 6) being designed so that the multiplexer/demultiplexer has a functioning independent of the state of polarisation of the signals.
An optical multiplexer/demultiplexer according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that each waveguide (4, 5, 6) has the same modal birefringence.
An optical multiplexer/demultiplexer according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the two wavelengths (λ1, λ2) coupled respectively by each lateral guide (5, 6) are situated in the same optical transmission window.
An optical multiplexer/demultiplexer according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that each lateral guide (5, 6) has a weighted interference in addition to the etching of a coupling grating (Λ1, Λ2) so that the rejection ratio of the spectral response of each coupler of the multiplexer/demultiplexer is greater than or equal to 10 dB.
An optical multiplexer/demultiplexer according to any one of the preceding claims, characterised in that it comprises a central waveguide (4) and a plurality of pairs of lateral waveguides (5, 6), each pair of lateral waveguides being able to couple successively two wavelengths (λ1, λ2).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.