WSS with high port isolation and close spaced ports

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-8977079-B2
Application number	US-201213551953-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 18, 2012
Priority date	Jul 18, 2012
Publication date	Mar 10, 2015
Grant date	Mar 10, 2015

Abstract

By steering wanted diffraction orders within a concentrated angular region and steering all unwanted diffraction orders outside that region, a wavelength selective switch achieves high port isolation and densely spaced ports. N inputs receive an optical signal. Optics spatially separate and direct wavelength channels from the signal. A phased array switching engine comprising cells steers a wanted diffraction order of each spatially separated wavelength channel from each cell at an angle within a concentrated angular region relative to the PASE, and steers all unwanted diffraction orders of spatially separated wavelength channels from cells outside the concentrated angular region. Optics direct each wanted diffraction order to one of N outputs in accordance with the steering of the wanted diffraction orders by the PASE. The concentrated angular region is defined by a largest and smallest steering angle wherein the largest steering angle is a margin less than the smallest steering angle.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method for operating a wavelength selective switch (WSS) having M inputs, N outputs and a phased array switching engine (PASE), the method comprising:
receiving an optical signal at one of the M inputs;
spatially separating one or more wavelength channels from the received optical signal;
directing the spatially separated wavelength channels to cells of the PASE;
steering a wanted diffraction order of each spatially separated wavelength channel from each cell a…

Assignees

• Mclaughlin Sheldon
• Jds Uniphase Corp

Inventors

• Mclaughlin Sheldon

Classifications

• G02B6/3546

  Physics · mapped topic

• G02B6/3518 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic

• G02B6/3548

  Physics · mapped topic