Abstract :
MIT scientists have developed a tiny device that promises to overcome a significant problem in photonics and yield less expensive, higher-performance, more useful optical networks. The researchers have developed an optical add/drop multiplexer (OADM). Wavelengths within a light beam passing through optical fiber typically become polarized horizontally in some cases and vertically in others, making it difficult for an optical system to use all the light. The OADM uses a splitter to divide the wavelengths into the two polarizations and a rotator to turn the vertically polarized beam to a horizontal orientation. It passes the two sets of beams through identical filters, picks off the wavelengths desired for transmission, and recombines them. Manufacturers thus can build them as part of a processor via the standard silicon-chip-production process, rather having to assemble them by hand as part of a separate structure, which is more expensive and time-consuming
Keywords :
electronic design automation; optical fibre networks; optical add/drop multiplexer; optical fiber network; silicon-chip-production process; Add-drop multiplexers; Assembly; Manufacturing processes; Optical add-drop multiplexers; Optical beams; Optical fiber networks; Optical fiber polarization; Optical fibers; Optical filters; Photonics; eDRAM; handheld devices; memory-chip technology; mobile computing; nanodevices; optical networks;
