Optical interconnection arrangement

Abstract

Abstract An optical interconnection arrangement having a high degree of connectivity and bandwidth is obtained by a non-collinear arrangement of lenses. In a preferred embodiment, the optical system comprises a first pupil lens, a second pupil lens and an array of fanout lenslets wherein the optical axes of the first and second pupil lenses are collinear. The first and second pupil lenses form an afocal system with the array of fanout lenslets situated between and at the focal planes of the first and second pupil lenses. Light beams from arrays of light emitting devices are collimated by input probe lenses that have their optical axes non-collinear with the optical axis of the first lens. The first pupil lens forms a coincident pattern of the arrays of light emitting devices. Additionally, the array of fanout lenslets fans out exiting beamlets comprising the coincident pattern such that each exiting beamlet substantially fills the aperture of the second pupil lens. Output probe lenses, similar to the input probe lenses, are positioned around the periphery of the second pupil lens. Each output probe lens images a representation of the coincident pattern to an array of light detecting devices which results in the establishment of a plurality of optical interconnections between the light emitting devices and the light detecting devices. Furthermore, the optical interconnections formed are independent of coherence, polarization or wavelength.

Inventors

• 👤 Robert E. LaMarche

Bibliographic Details