US 12,345,998 B2
Tunable optical wedge for reducing crosstalk in wavelength selective switch
Helen Chen, Cupertino, CA (US); Guomin Jiang, Wilmington, DE (US); Tom Li, Wilmington, DE (US); Lawrence Wang, Wilmington, DE (US); and Jim Yuan, Wilmington, DE (US)
Assigned to II-VI DELAWARE, INC., Wilmington, DE (US)
Filed by II-VI Delaware, Inc., Wilmington, DE (US)
Filed on Jun. 3, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/805,342.
Prior Publication US 2023/0393445 A1, Dec. 7, 2023
Int. Cl. G02F 1/29 (2006.01); G02F 1/313 (2006.01); H04J 14/02 (2006.01); H04Q 11/00 (2006.01)
CPC G02F 1/292 (2013.01) [G02F 1/3131 (2013.01); H04J 14/0212 (2013.01); H04Q 11/0005 (2013.01); G02F 2201/305 (2013.01); H04Q 2011/0018 (2013.01)] 21 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
11. A wavelength selective switch comprising:
a plurality of ports at least including at least one input port and two or more output ports, the at least one input port configured to transmit an input beam, the ports being separated by port spacing;
a dispersion element arranged in optical communication with the input beam from the at least one input port and configured to disperse the input beam into optical channels;
a switch assembly arranged in optical communication with the optical channels from the dispersion element, the switch assembly being liquid crystal based and having a plurality of pixels, the pixels being individually addressable to create a reconfigurable phase grating profile, the reconfigurable phase grating profile of the pixels being configured to selectively direct a first order of one or more diffracted beams of one or more of the optical channels from the switch assembly for output to selected one or more of the output ports; and
a tunable optical wedge arranged in optical communication with the switch assembly and the plurality of port, the tunable optical wedge being selectably tunable between a plurality of states in which a distance, at the plurality of ports, between the first order of the one or more diffracted beams and an other order of the diffracted beam having a higher order than the first order (a “higher order”) varies between the states, and the tunable optical wedge is configured, in one of the plurality of states, to direct a-the higher order of the one or more diffracted beams towards the port spacing between the ports and the first order of the diffracted beam toward the selected one of the other ports.