Claims
- 1. A method of redirecting light of a wavelength from a main pathway using a diffractive optical element having a plurality of reflective grating elements, and a plurality of actuating beams, each of the plurality of actuating beams supported over a substrate and supporting a corresponding one the grating elements over the substrate to form a corresponding auxiliary gap, the plurality of actuating beams and the plurality of grating elements configured such that a displacement of at least one of the plurality of actuating beams toward the substrate causes the corresponding one of the reflective grating elements to be displaced toward the substrate, comprising:
directing a beam of light along the main pathway and onto the plurality of grating elements, the beam having at least light of a first wavelength and light of a second wavelength; and positioning at least one of the actuating beams relative to the substrate to cause at least a portion of one of the light of a first wavelength and the light of a second wavelength to be diffracted out of the main pathway.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein the light of a first wavelength is from a source having a plurality of wavelengths directed along the main pathway.
- 3. The method of claim 1 further comprising spatially separating the light of a first wavelength and the light of a second wavelength prior to directing the beam of light onto the plurality of grating elements.
- 4. The method of claim 3 wherein the light of a first wavelength is an optical carrier in a DWDM signal.
- 5. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one optical carrier is dropped.
- 6. The method of claim 4 wherein the at least one of the optical carriers is assymetrically diffracted.
- 7. The method of claim 4 wherein the method is used to block optical carriers in an OADM multiplexer system.
- 8. The method of claim 3 wherein the method is used to block an empty channel of the wavelength-division multiplexed signal.
- 9. A method of processing at least one optical carrier of a wavelength-division multiplexed signal using a diffracting optical element, the diffracting optical element having a plurality of reflective grating elements, and a plurality of actuating beams, each of the plurality of actuating beams supported over the substrate and supporting a corresponding one the grating elements over the substrate to form an auxiliary gap, the plurality of actuating beams and the plurality of grating elements configured such that a displacement of at least one of the plurality of actuating beams toward the substrate causes the corresponding one of the reflective grating elements to be displaced toward the substrate, comprising:
directing the at least one optical carrier along a main pathway, and onto the plurality of grating elements; and positioning at least one of the plurality of actuating beams to modify the optical strength along the main pathway of the at least one optical carrier.
- 10. The method of claim 9 further comprising spatially separating the light of a first wavelength and the light of a second wavelength prior to the directing the beam of light onto the plurality of grating elements.
- 11. The method of claim 10 wherein the modification is that the at least one optical carrier is dropped.
- 12. The method of claim 10 wherein the at least one of the optical carriers is assymetrically diffracted.
- 13. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used to block optical carriers in an OADM multiplexer system.
- 14. The method of claim 10 wherein the method is used to block an empty channel of the wavelength-division multiplexed signal.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/272,946 filed Mar. 2,2001, entitled “METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR WAVELENGTH-BASED OPTICAL PROCESSING,” by Senturia. This application is also a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/015,732, entitled “ELECTROSTATICALLY-CONTROLLABLE DIFFRACTION GRATING,” filed on Dec. 10, 2001, which in turn is a continuation of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 09/537,936, entitled “PRECISION ELECTROSTATIC ACTUATION AND POSITIONING,” by Hung et al., filed Mar. 29, 2000, now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,329,738 B1, entitled “PRECISION ELECTROSTATIC ACTUATION AND POSITIONING,” by Hung et al., which in turn claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/126,844, entitled “PRECISION ELECTROSTATIC ACTUATION AND POSITION CONTROL,” filed Mar. 30, 1999. The entirety of each of the above is hereby incorporated by reference.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED R&D
[0002] This invention was made with Government support under Contract Nos. N66001-97-8620 and J-FBI-95-215, both awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. The Government may have certain rights in the invention.
Provisional Applications (2)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
|
60272946 |
Mar 2001 |
US |
|
60126844 |
Mar 1999 |
US |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09537936 |
Mar 2000 |
US |
Child |
10090380 |
Mar 2002 |
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
10015732 |
Dec 2001 |
US |
Child |
10090380 |
Mar 2002 |
US |