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US 2006/0215957 A1Published application
Optical coupler apparatus and method
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorChristopher Doerr
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A planar lightwave circuit coupler including first and second waveguides with curved coupling portions having radii of curvature selected such that the coupler has a splitting ratio that is substantially wavelength and polarization insensitive.
Claims9
A planar lightwave circuit (PLC) coupler comprising:
- a first waveguide including a curved coupling portion with a finite radius of curvature Rc1;
- and
- a second waveguide including a curved coupling portion with a finite radius of curvature Rc2, the coupling portion of the second waveguide being operatively coupled to the coupling portion of the first waveguide such that light can be coupled between the first and second waveguides;
- wherein the propagation constants of the first and second waveguides are substantially the same;
- and
- wherein the splitting ratio of the coupler is substantially wavelength and polarization insensitive.
3 more elements
A method of fabricating a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) for optical coupling comprising the steps of:
- forming a first waveguide and a second waveguide on a PLC, the first waveguide and the second waveguide having curved coupling regions with finite radii of curvature Rc1 and Rc2, respectively;
- wherein the propagation constants of the first and second waveguides are substantially the same, and Rc1 and Rc2 are selected such that the coupler exhibits a desired splitting ratio, and
- wherein the splitting ratio of the coupler is substantially wavelength and polarization insensitive.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.