Optical interconnect for rolling slip rings

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9122017-B2
Application number	US-201313896221-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 16, 2013
Priority date	May 16, 2013
Publication date	Sep 1, 2015
Grant date	Sep 1, 2015

Abstract

A rolling slip ring structure is disclosed incorporating coupled optical waveguides that provide an optical signal pathway through at least three coplanar optical waveguide rings. The inner, outer and center rings of the rolling slip ring structure are configured such that any or all of the rings can rotate about a central axis perpendicular to the plane of the rings and at the center of the inner and outer optical waveguide rings. The center optical waveguide ring can also rotate about an axis that is perpendicular to the plane containing the three optical waveguide rings and is at the center of the center ring. The optical coupling length between the optical waveguide rings in the system remains constant regardless of rotation of any or all of the optical waveguide rings.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A fully-rotational conductor assembly, comprising:
an inner optical signal conductor and an outer optical signal conductor having complementary tracks, at least one of the inner optical signal conductor and the outer optical signal conductor being relatively rotatable about a common axis;
a center optical signal conductor located between and engaging the complementary tracks, thereby providing optical signal coupling between the inner and outer optical sig…

Assignees

• Raytheon Co

Inventors

• Cottrell William J

Classifications

• G02B6/3604 Primary

  Physics · mapped topic