US 12,113,574 B2
Colorless splitter/combiner cable assembly
Martin R. Williams, Big Flats, NY (US); Yajun Wang, Naperville, IL (US); Eric Timothy Green, Corning, NY (US); Aravanan Gurusami, Morgan Hill, CA (US); Deepak Devicharan, Horseheads, NY (US); Timothy Kent Zahnley, Cameron, NY (US); and Mike Burgess, Elmira, NY (US)
Assigned to II-VI DELAWARE, INC., Wilmington, DE (US)
Filed by II-VI Delaware, Inc, Wilmington, DE (US)
Filed on Sep. 23, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/448,644.
Application 17/448,644 is a division of application No. 16/812,186, filed on Mar. 6, 2020, granted, now 11,177,886.
Application 16/812,186 is a continuation in part of application No. 16/672,316, filed on Nov. 1, 2019, granted, now 11,588,295.
Prior Publication US 2022/0085889 A1, Mar. 17, 2022
Int. Cl. H04B 10/297 (2013.01); H01S 3/067 (2006.01)
CPC H04B 10/2972 (2013.01) [H01S 3/06787 (2013.01); H04B 10/2971 (2013.01)] 9 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A colorless multiplexer/demultiplexer (mux/demux) cable assembly, comprising:
a 1:N optical splitter, wherein N is a positive integer of 2 or higher;
a N:1 optical combiner coupled side-by-side to the 1:N optical splitter;
a first fiber optic cable having a proximal end fixedly connected at a first end of the cable assembly and extending from the first end of the cable assembly, the first fiber optic cable comprising an input fiber and an output fiber, wherein the input fiber has a proximal end fixedly connected within the cable assembly that is optically coupled to an input of the 1:N optical splitter and the output fiber has a proximal end fixedly connected within the cable assembly that is optically coupled to an output of the N:1 optical combiner; and
a second fiber optical cable having a proximal end fixedly connected at a second end of the cable assembly and extending from the second end of the cable assembly opposite to the first end, the second fiber optical cable comprising N output fibers and N input fibers, wherein each of the N output fibers has a proximal end fixedly connected within the cable assembly that is optically coupled to an output of the 1:N optical splitter and each of the N input fibers has a proximal end fixedly connected within the cable assembly that is optically coupled to an input of the N:1 optical combiner,
wherein the 1:N optical splitter is configured to receive an optical signal made up of N wavelength channels, split the optical signal N ways independent of wavelength, and provide each of the N wavelength channels to each of the N output fibers.