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US 2003/0198438 A1Published application
Tunable add/drop multiplexer
OwnerEverett X. Wang, Dmitri E. Nikonovinventors
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Abstract
A tunable add/drop multiplexer may be formed with a pair of identical tunable surface gratings. In one embodiment, the tunable surface grating may be placed in each arm of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A heater may be applied to each surface grating to change the thermal-optic properties of the grating and to change the wavelength that is reflected by the grating. As a result, by changing the current through the heater, the wavelength that is dropped by the Mach-Zehnder interferometer may be varied.
Claims29
An add/drop multiplexer comprising:
- a Mach-Zehnder interferometer including a pair of arms;
- and
- each of said arms including an identical grating in a waveguide formed of a material having a thermooptic coefficient greater than 1×e-04 per Kelvin.
An add/drop multiplexer comprising:
- a Mach-Zehnder interferometer including a pair of arms;
- each of said arms including a surface grating including a waveguide;
- and
- a heater formed on said waveguide to vary the temperature of said waveguide.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- enabling light to pass through an add/drop multiplexer including a pair of gratings;
- and
- varying the temperatures of said gratings to select the wavelength that is dropped by said add/drop multiplexer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.