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US 7,401,985 B2Granted
Electrical-optical active optical cable
AssigneeFinisar Corporation
InventorsLewis B. Aronson, Greta Light
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An active cable that includes an integrated electrical connector at one end and an optical connector at the other end, and one or more optical fibers disposed therebetween to facilitate optical communication over much of the length of the active cable. The communication may be one direction or even duplex.
Claims14
An integrated cable comprising:
- a first optical fiber within the integrated cable;
- a receive optical sub-assembly (ROSA) located near a first end of the integrated cable, the ROSA including a first opto-electrical transducer within the integrated cable and coupled to a first end of the first optical fiber such that when a first optical signal is present on the first optical fiber, the first opto-electrical transducer receives the first optical signal and converts the first optical signal into a first electrical signal;
- a first electrical connector located at the first end of the integrated cable and being integrated with the integrated cable and coupled to the first opto-electrical transducer such that when the first optical signal is received by the first opto-electrical transducer, the first electrical connector receives the first electrical signal, wherein the first electrical connector is sized to connect with a first electrical port external to the cable such that when connected to the first electrical port and when the first electrical signal is present on the first electrical connector, the first electrical signal is provided to the first electrical port;
- a transmit optical subassembly (TOSA) located near the first end of the integrated cable including a first electro-optical transducer within the integrated cable and coupled to the first electrical connector such that when a second electrical signal is applied to the first electrical connector, the first electro-optical transducer receives the second electrical signal and converts the second electrical signal into a second optical signal;
- and
- a second optical fiber within the integrated cable and coupled to the first electro-optical transducer such that when the second electrical signal is present on the first electrical connector, the second optical fiber receives the second optical signal from the first electro-optical transducer at a first end of the second optical fiber;
- a first optical connector coupled to a second end of the first optical fiber;
- and
- a second optical connector coupled to a second end of the second optical fiber, wherein the integrated cable is configured for bidirectional optical communication.
6 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.