Micro-etalon and associated methods

Details Micro-etalon and associated methods Micro-etalon and associated methods

1999-08-24

2001-08-21

Shafer, Ricky D. (Department: 2872)

Optical: systems and elements

Mirror

Plural mirrors or reflecting surfaces

C359S857000, C359S900000, C083S039000, C083S056000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06276806

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to etalons, such as Fabry-Perot etalons, and associated methods, more particularly to straight-edged etalons and methods of mass-producing etalons.
2. Description of Related Art
An example of a conventional rectangular etalon
10
is shown in
FIGS. 1A and 1B
. The etalon
10
includes two plane, parallel, highly reflective surfaces
12
on plates
14
. The surfaces
12
are separated by spacer blocks
16
, forming a gap
19
there between. The gap
19
can be an air-filled gap, a gas-filled gap, or a vacuum.
As can be seen therein, edges
18
of all components of the etalon
10
are beveled. This beveling is used to insure durability of the etalon while it is being integrated into a system, particularly for preventing chips on the etalon. However, this beveling does not lend itself to mass production of etalons.
Conventionally, etalons have been larger than on a micro scale and a large number of etalons were not required for a system. However, the use of etalons in communications systems, particularly with wavelength division multiplexed systems, has become more widespread. The use of etalons in communication systems is taught, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,756 entitled “Etalon Filters for Optical Channel Selection in Wavelength Division Multiplexed Fiber Systems” and U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,762 entitled “Optical Communication System Using Tandem Fabry-Perot Etalon for Wavelength Selection,” both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Such applications require both small etalons and a large number of etalons. The beveling of the conventional etalons makes both the small size and the mass production of such etalons impractical.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is therefore directed to a micro-etalon and a method of mass producing such micro-etalons which substantially overcome one or more of the problems due to the limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
It is an object of the present invention to create a micro-etalon which may be mass-produced.
These and other objects may be realized by providing an etalon including a first plate having a first reflective surface, a second plate having a second reflective surface, said second reflective surface facing said first reflective surface, and spacer blocks between the first and second reflective surfaces which separate the first and second reflective surfaces, outer edges of the first plate, the second plate and the spacer blocks being non-beveled.
The outer edges may all be straight. All dimensions of the etalon may be under 10 mm. The first plate, the second plate and the spacer blocks may all have been cut from wafers. The cross-sections of the etalon may be rectangular. The outer edges of the spacer blocks may be aligned with outer edges of the plates.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of mass-producing micro-etalons.
These and other objects may be realized by providing a method of producing a plurality of etalons including slitting a spacer substrate into spacer strips, aligning spacer strips on a first plate substrate having a first reflective surface facing the spacer strips, aligning a second plate substrate to the first plate substrate with the spacer strips aligned thereon, the second plate substrate having a second reflective surface facing the spacer strips, and dicing aligned first plate substrate, spacer strips, and second plate substrate to form the plurality of etalons.
Before dicing to form the plurality of etalons, spacer strips may be fixed to the first and second wafer substrates. The spacer substrate, the first plate substrate and the second plate substrate may all have the same surface dimensions prior to slitting and dicing. The aligning of the spacer strips to the first plate substrate may include aligning the slit spacer substrate strips to the first plate substrate, having removed undesired spacer strips. The substrates may be wafers of any shape.
These and other objects of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating the preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3580082 (1971-05-01), Strack
patent: 4196402 (1980-04-01), Butler et al.
patent: 4813756 (1989-03-01), Frenkel et al.
patent: 5646762 (1997-07-01), Delavaux et al.
patent: 6128134 (2000-10-01), Feldman et al.
patent: 6181726 (2001-01-01), Lunt

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Micro-etalon and associated methods does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Micro-etalon and associated methods, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Micro-etalon and associated methods will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2437017