Claims
- 1. A planar lightwave circuit generalized for handling any given band of multiple bands of a wavelength range, comprising:
a first periodic grating element handling a first group of bands; and a second periodic grating element handling a second group of bands.
- 2. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second groups of bands overlap in the wavelength range.
- 3. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 2, wherein the bands of the first and second groups of bands are spaced apart by a fixed wavelength value.
- 4. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 3, wherein the fixed wavelength value is equivalent to the bandwidth of each band of the multiple bands, and wherein the first group of bands comprises alternating, even bands of said multiple bands of the wavelength range, and the second group of bands comprises alternating, odd bands of said multiple bands of the wavelength range.
- 5. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, thereby handling the entire wavelength range, and wherein:
the planar lightwave circuit comprises separate inputs and outputs for each band, routed to the appropriate grating element.
- 6. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, thereby handling the entire wavelength range, and wherein:
the planar lightwave circuit comprises common inputs and/or outputs for each group of bands, selectable to/from the appropriate grating element via controllable optical switch elements.
- 7. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, thereby handling the entire wavelength range, and wherein:
the planar lightwave circuit comprises common inputs and/or outputs for each group of bands, routed to/from the appropriate grating element via an optical interleaver.
- 8. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second grating elements comprise arrayed waveguide gratings or echelle gratings.
- 9. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, and wherein the free spectral range of each of the periodic grating elements is about twice the bandwidth of each band.
- 10. The planar lightwave circuit of claim 1, wherein the first and second periodic grating elements are closely spaced on a common substrate.
- 11. A method for forming a planar lightwave circuit generalized for handling any given band of multiple bands of a wavelength range, comprising:
forming a first periodic grating element handling a first group of bands; and forming a second periodic grating element handling a second group of bands.
- 12. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second groups of bands overlap in the wavelength range.
- 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the bands of the first and second groups of bands are spaced apart by a fixed wavelength value.
- 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the fixed wavelength value is equivalent to the bandwidth of each band of the multiple bands, and wherein the first group of bands comprises alternating, even bands of said multiple bands of the wavelength range, and the second group of bands comprises alternating, odd bands of said multiple bands of the wavelength range.
- 15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, thereby handling the entire wavelength range, and further comprising:
providing separate inputs and outputs for each band, routed to the appropriate grating element.
- 16. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, thereby handling the entire wavelength range, and further comprising:
providing common inputs and/or outputs for each group of bands, selectable to/from the appropriate grating element via controllable optical switch elements.
- 17. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, thereby handling the entire wavelength range, and further comprising:
providing common inputs and/or outputs for each group of bands, routed to/from the appropriate grating element via an optical interleaver.
- 18. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second grating elements comprise arrayed waveguide gratings or echelle gratings.
- 19. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second groups of bands comprise alternating bands, and wherein the free spectral range of each of the periodic grating elements is about twice the bandwidth of each band.
- 20. The method of claim 11, wherein the first and second periodic grating elements are closely spaced on a common substrate.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This Application relates to the following copending, commonly assigned U.S. Patent Applications, each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety:
[0002] Ser. No. 09/901,474 entitled “Redundant Package for Optical Components” filed Jul. 9, 2001;
[0003] Ser. No. 09/977,065 entitled “Waveguide Stress Engineering and Compatible Passivation in Planar Lightwave Circuits” filed Oct. 12, 2001;
[0004] Ser. No. 10/010,931 entitled “High Thermal Efficiency, Small FormFactor Packages Including Thermally Insulative Cavities, and Transfer Molded Variants” filed Nov. 20, 2001;
[0005] Ser. No. 10/001,266 entitled “Precision Fiber Optic Alignment and Attachment Apparatus” filed Nov. 30, 2001; and
[0006] Ser. No. 10/077,581 entitled “Compact, Low Insertion Loss, High Yield Arrayed Waveguide Grating” filed Feb. 15, 2002.