TelOptics has developed technology, designs and prototypes for small, low cost, reliable optical components. The technology enables high speed optical switching, attenuation and other functions to be integrated into conventional monolithic waveguide structures.
The above animated drawing shows a TelOptics optical switch element. The red arrows illustrate the propagation of a light beam through the element. In an un-switched state, the element is off, and the body of the element is shown with the color green. The light beam passes directly through the element when the element is off. In the switched state, the element is on, and the body of the element is shown with the color gold. The light beam is switched, and is diverted inside the element when the element is off.
The TelOptics switch element uses a Field Effect Light Transistortm (FELTtm) technology invented and patented by TelOptics. The FELT designs have a small size - with dimensions on the order of 0.1 millimeter - in order to fit into reduced size instrumentation packages. The designs are solid state with no moving parts or fluids in order to assure long-term reliability. To reduce the manufacturing cost, the FELT designs are made using conventional semiconductor industry equipment and fabrication techniques. The designs have low power consumption and do not rely on the application of heat to operate. Preferably, the FELT designs are included in a monolithic waveguide structure in order to integrate optical functions such as switching, multiplexing, splitting, combining, attenuating, etc. thus eliminating the cost of interconnecting these separate functions. The designs may be used with silica-on-silicon, silicon oxy-nitride, and other commercially available waveguide structures. FELT designs have the capability of responding in nanoseconds, in order to allow high speed switching for specialized data communications applications. Although particularly suitable for optical switching, the FELT technology may also be used for optical attenuation, modulation, polarization rotation, polarization splitting and combining.
The images above are graphical displays of a simulation of the un-switched (left) and switched (right) performance of the TelOptics optical switch. The simulations were made using the beam propagation method and an implicit finite difference algorithm. The images were prepared with BeamPROP optoelectronics software from Rsoft, Inc. of Ossining, New York.
TelOptics Corp.
| 1180-F Aster Ave | Tel: (408) 241-9960 | Email:info@teloptics.com |
| Sunnyvale, Ca. 94086 | Fax: (408) 241-9962 | WWW: http://www.teloptics.com |
