| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 349196000 | Beam dividing switch formed from liquid crystal cell | 16 |
| 20080218680 | HIGH EXTINCTION RATIO LIQUID CRYSTAL OPTICAL SWITCH - An optical switch for performing high extinction ratio switching of an optical signal includes a beam polarizing element and one or more optical elements. The optical elements are configured to direct an optical signal along a first or second optical path based on the polarization state of the optical signal as it passes through the optical elements. The optical switch performs high extinction ratio switching of the optical signal by preventing unwanted optical energy from entering an output port by using an absorptive or reflective optical element or by directing the unwanted optical energy along a different optical path. | 09-11-2008 |
| 20090147212 | SINGLE CONTROL LIQUID CRYSTAL OPTICAL SWITCH AND ATTENUATOR - An optical device is configured to perform both switching and attenuation of an optical beam in response to a single control signal. The optical device includes a liquid-crystal-based beam-polarizing element having polarization-conditioning regions that are controlled using a common electrode. The first polarization-conditioning region conditions the polarization of the input beam in order to separate the input beam into a primary component and a residual component. The second and third polarization-conditioning regions change the polarization of the primary component and the residual component, respectively. The primary component is directed to an output port after it has been attenuated based on its polarization state. The residual component, after passing through the third polarization-conditioning region, has its intensity further reduced based on its polarization state. | 06-11-2009 |
| 20100097564 | Display Device, Finder Device and Camera - To provide a small-size display device of a simple structure which can perform both of superimpose display and finder field-of-view control. | 04-22-2010 |
| 20100214527 | LIQUID CRYSTAL OPTICAL SWITCH FOR OPTICAL SIGNAL HAVING ARBITRARY POLARIZATION - An optical device performs both switching and attenuation of an optical beam, where the beam has an arbitrary combination of s-polarized and p-polarized components. The optical device includes a birefringent displacer, a liquid crystal (LC) beam-polarizing structure having six subpixels organized in a first polarization group and a second polarization group, a half-wave plate positioned for polarization control of the second polarization group, and a polarization separating and rotating assembly. The structure of the LC beam-polarizing structure allows for 1×2 switching and attenuation control with a single control signal. The optical device may be configured for processing multiple input light beams, such as the multiple wavelength channels de-multiplexed from a wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical signal. | 08-26-2010 |
| 20110109869 | RECONFIGURABLE WAVELENGTH SELECTIVE CROSS-CONNECT SWITCH USING LIQUID CRYSTAL CELLS - A reconfigurable optical cross-connect switch includes N input ports and M output ports, where N and M are integers with a value of two or more. The switch has a set of switching stages where each switching stage includes a polarization switch to receive an input linearly polarized optical beam. One or more birefringent prism pairs associated with the polarization switch directs the input linearly polarized optical beam to any of the M output ports through control of the polarization switch. | 05-12-2011 |
| 20120236247 | High Extinction Ratio Liquid Crystal Optical Switch - An optical switch for performing high extinction ratio switching of an optical signal includes a beam polarizing element and one or more optical elements. The optical elements are configured to direct an optical signal along a first or second optical path based on the polarization state of the optical signal as it passes through the optical elements. The optical switch performs high extinction ratio switching of the optical signal by preventing unwanted optical energy from entering an output port by using an absorptive or reflective optical element or by directing the unwanted optical energy along a different optical path. | 09-20-2012 |
| 20130057821 | Laser probe with an electrically steerable light beam - Certain embodiments are directed towards a laser probe that electrically steers emitted light beam. The laser probe may include a housing, an optical waveguide, and a beam steering cell. The housing has a tubular shape defining an interior region. The optical waveguide is disposed within the interior region and is configured to emit a light beam travelling in a first direction. The beam steering cell is disposed within the housing and comprises an electro-optical (EO) material. The beam steering cell is configured to receive one or more voltages and electrically steer the light beam with the OE material to a second direction. The laser probe may be a directional laser probe or a multi-spot laser probe. | 03-07-2013 |
| 20130083284 | SWITCH ELEMENT COMPRISING A LIQUID-CRYSTALLINE MEDIUM - The present invention relates to a switch element, which is thermo-responsive and which switches between a less transmissive state for radiant energy and a more transmissive state for radiant energy, and which comprises a liquid-crystalline medium. The invention furthermore relates to the use of the switch element for the regulation of radiant energy flow between interior spaces and the environment and for the regulation of the temperature of interior spaces. The invention furthermore relates to a liquid-crystalline medium, characterised in that it comprises 5-60% of a compound of the formula (I), in particular for use in the switch elements according to the invention. | 04-04-2013 |
| 20130128215 | WAVELENGTH SELECTIVE OPTICAL SWITCHING DEVICES - A wavelength selective switch device includes an incidence part where wavelength multiplexed light made of light of a plurality of wavelengths enters, an exit part that includes a plurality of fiber that outputs light of a wavelength selected from a signal in which wavelength multiplexed light that entered from the incidence part enters, a polarization diversity part that separates incidence light that entered the incidence part according to polarization components of the incidence light to make first and second optical beams, a wavelength dispersion and synthesis element that spatially disperses incidence light according to a wavelength of the incidence light and multiplexes the spatially dispersed reflected light according to the wavelength, and a wavelength dispersion and synthesis element that spatially disperses incidence light according to a wavelength of the incidence light and multiplexes the spatially dispersed reflected light according to the wavelength. | 05-23-2013 |
| 20130194537 | Method and Apparatus for Wavelength Selective Switch - Apparatus and method embodiments are provided for implementing a wavelength selective switch (WSS). The embodiments use combinations of switchable polarization grating (SPG) and LC cells and combinations of polymer polarization grating (PPG) and LC cells to achieve 1×N WSS systems. An embodiment optical switch includes a liquid crystal cell and a SPG cell adjacent to the liquid crystal cell. The SPG includes liquid crystal material between two photo-alignment layers, an electrode layer overlying each photo-alignment layer, and a glass substrate overlying each electrode layer. An embodiment method includes polarizing an incident light beam at a circular polarization before diffracting, at a polarization grating, the polarized incident light beam in a determined angle that corresponds to a diffraction order in accordance to the circular polarization of the incident light beam and a hologram pattern direction formed inside the polarization grating. | 08-01-2013 |
| 20140016079 | WAVELENGTH SELECTIVE OPTICAL SWITCH - A wavelength selective optical switch includes an incidence/emergence unit that includes an input port at which signal light made up of light of numerous wavelengths is incident and an output port at which light signals of selected wavelengths are emergent, a wavelength dispersion element that spatially disperses signal light according to a wavelength of the signal light, and synthesizes reflected light, a condenser element that condenses light dispersed by the wavelength dispersion element on a two-dimensional plane, a space phase modulator arranged so as to receive incident light deployed on an xy plane made up of an x-axis direction deployed according to wavelength and a y-axis direction orthogonal to the x-axis direction, and having numerous pixels arranged in a lattice on the xy plane, and a space phase modulator drive unit. | 01-16-2014 |
| 20140104560 | WAVELENGTH SELECTIVE SWITCH INCLUDING A LIQUID CRYSTAL ON SILICON - A wavelength selective switch (WSS) apparatus is disclosed, which includes: a liquid crystal on silicon (LCOS) phase array configured for selectively diverting a certain wavelength component of light beams to continue to propagate and keeping another wavelength component of the light beams from propagating by controlling a voltage applied thereto and/or a polarization of the light beams, the LCOS phase array being provided with a first liquid crystal (LC) domain, a second liquid crystal (LC) domain, and a reflection component, the reflection component being configured to reflect a light beam input through the first LC domain back to the first LC domain and reflect a light beam input through the second LC domain back to the second LC domain; and a reflective element that is arranged to reflect the light beams output from the LCOS phase array back to the LCOS phase array. | 04-17-2014 |
| 20140204330 | PIPELINED PIXEL APPLICATIONS IN LIQUID CRYSTAL ON SILICON CHIP - An example embodiment includes a LCOS IC. The LCOS IC includes multiple pixels, a column driver, and multiple conductive lines. The pixels are arranged in a pixel array. The column driver is configured to supply multiple signals to a column of pixels included in the pixel array. Each of the conductive lines couples the column driver to a subset of pixels in the column of pixels. The conductive lines are configured such that two or more of the signals can be supplied to two or more of the subsets of pixels with some overlapping duration. | 07-24-2014 |
| 20140313469 | RECONFIGURABLE 1xN FEW-MODE FIBER OPTICAL SWITCH BASED ON A SPATIAL LIGHT MODULATOR - An optical switch includes an array of parallel few-mode fibers stacked vertically; beam stretchers that modifies an aspect ratio between a height and a width of beams associated with each few-mode fiber; a spatial light modulator with a 2D array of independently programmed tunable pixels, wherein the spatial light modulator manipulates phase and/or amplitude at each position of an incident optical beam; a wavelength demultiplexer which can separate the spectral components of an incident beam in angle; and lenses for imaging the modes of the input array of fiber to the spatial light modulator. | 10-23-2014 |
| 20160252796 | High Power Optical Switch | 09-01-2016 |
| 349197000 | Including passive liquid crystal switch portion | 1 |
| 20140085598 | High Extinction Ratio Liquid Crystal Optical Switch - An optical switch for performing high extinction ratio switching of an optical signal includes a beam polarizing element and one or more optical elements. The optical elements are configured to direct an optical signal along a first or second optical path based on the polarization state of the optical signal as it passes through the optical elements. The optical switch performs high extinction ratio switching of the optical signal by preventing unwanted optical energy from entering an output port by using an absorptive or reflective optical element or by directing the unwanted optical energy along a different optical path. | 03-27-2014 |
