Integrated opto-mechanical apparatus
AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorJoseph Earl Ford
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A class of opto-electronic mechanical devices that include a planar optical waveguide having a cladding in which there is carried an evanescent electric field by a light beam traveling along the waveguide and a mechanical micro-element controllably coupled into the evanescent field for varying locally the properties of the waveguide in a wavelength dependent fashion. The devices described include optical switches and WDM add/drop apparatus.
Claims7
Apparatus comprising:
- means providing an optical signal in a waveguide that is characterized by a region surrounding the path of the light that includes the evanescent field of the light;
- MEMS means including a grating for affecting the optical signal traveling along the waveguide;
- and
- means for controllably inserting the affecting means in or out of the region of the evanescent field of the optical signal traveling along the waveguide, for affecting desired changes in the optical signal in a wavelength dependent fashion.
The method of affecting an optical signal traveling along a waveguide that comprises positioning a MEMS that includes a deformable control element including a grating adjacent the waveguide, and
- controllably deforming the deformable element in and out of the evanescent field of the optical signal traveling along the waveguide whereby the optical signal is affected in a wavelength dependent fashion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.