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US 6,636,661 B1Granted
Optical signal interleaving comb filter with reduced chromatic dispersion and applications therefor
AssigneeWavesplitter Technologies, Inc.
InventorAn Andrew Zeng
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Optical signal interleaver/deinterleavers with reduced chromatic dispersion are described. In one embodiment, the interleaver/deinterleavers include two optical filters and an optical isolator coupled to receive the output of each of the optical filters. The optical isolators feed the filtered signals back to the filters. Passing the filtered signals back through the filters in the opposite direction as the first pass allows the filters to cancel, or nearly cancel, the chromatic dispersion caused by the filters on the first pass. Thus, the interleaver/deinterleavers provide reduced chromatic dispersion as compared to use of a single filter or of cascaded filters.
Claims20
An apparatus comprising:
- first and second optical filters having a first input port to receive an optical signal and to provide a filtering function on the optical signal;
- a first optical isolator optically coupled with a first output port of the first optical filter to route the filtered optical signal received from the first output port of the first optical filter to a second input port of the first optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the first optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the first optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the first optical filter, wherein the signal output from a second output port of the first optical filter comprises a first subset of optical signals from the optical signal;
- and
- a second optical isolator optically coupled with a first output port of the second optical filter to rout the filtered optical signal received from the first output port of the first optical filter to a second input port of the second optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the second optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the second optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the second optical filter, wherein the signal output from a second output port of the second optical signal comprises a second subset of optical signals from the optical signal.
1 more element
An apparatus comprising:
- a first optical filter to receive a first set of signals with a first input port, the first optical filter to filter the first set of signals and to pass the first set of signals to a first output port;
- a first optical isolator optically coupled with the first output port of the first optical filter, the first optical isolator to pass the filtered signal from the first output port to a second input port of the first optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the first optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the first optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the first optical filter;
- a second optical filter to receive a second set of signals with a first input port, the second optical filter to filter the second set of signals and to pass the second set of signals to a first output port;
- and
- a second optical isolator optically coupled with the first output port of the second optical filter, the second optical isolator to pass the filtered signal from the first output port to a second input port of the second optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the second optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the second optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the second optical filter;
- wherein the first optical filter further filters the signal received via the second input port and passes the further filtered signal to a second output port and the second optical filter further filters the signal received via the second input port and passes the further filtered signal to a second output port.
3 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving an optical signal having a first set of frequencies and a second set of frequencies;
- directing the optical signal to a first optical filter and to a second optical filter;
- directing the filtered optical signal from the first optical filter back through the first optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the first optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the first optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the first optical filter;
- and
- directing the filtered optical signal from the second optical filter back through the second optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the second optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the second optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the second optical filter.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- receiving a first optical signal having a first set of frequencies;
- filtering the first optical signal with a first optical filter;
- further filtering the filtered optical signals from first optical filter with the first optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the first optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the first optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the first optical filter;
- receiving a second optical signal having a second set of frequencies;
- filtering the second optical signal with a second optical filter;
- further filtering the filtered optical signals from the second optical filter with the second optical filter such that the filtered optical signal is further filtered by the second optical filter and that the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the second pass through the second optical filter substantially cancel the chromatic dispersion characteristics of the first pass through the second optical filter;
- combining the further filtered optical signals from the first optical filter and the second optical filter to create and optical signal having the first set of frequencies and the second set of frequencies.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.