Optical networking assembly

Abstract

An optical network assembly includes a planar lightguide circuit (PLC) and a filtering device. A PLC can have at least two optical paths for propagating optical energy. The PLC can be designed to channel optical energy with its optical paths towards the filtering device in order to separate the optical energy into at least two beams, where a first beam can contain a first information channel and a second beam can contain a second information channel. The filtering device can be attached directly to the PLC or it can be attached directly to an optical waveguide that is also connected to the PLC. The optical waveguide can either feed optical energy to or propagate optical energy away from the PLC. Multiple optical waveguides can be attached to a PLC to feed optical energy into and away from the PLC. The PLC, filtering device, and optical waveguide can form the building blocks to more complex optical network architectures.

What is claimed is:  
     
         1 . An optical network assembly comprising: 
 a light circuit having a first optical path and a second optical path, said first optical path propagating an optical energy having a first and a second information channel contained therein; and    a filtering device for separating the optical energy into at least two optical beams, a first beam containing said first information channel and second beam containing said second information channel, said filtering device passing the first beam therethrough and reflecting the second beam towards said second path, said second path propagating the reflected second beam away from said first beam, whereby modal disruption and losses of the optical energy entering and exiting the light circuit due to alignment with other light carrying devices is reduced while minimizing an amount of hardware and size associated with the optical network assembly.    
     
     
         2 . The optical network assembly of  claim 1 , further comprising at least three optical paths within the light circuit.  
     
     
         3 . The optical network assembly of  claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of light circuits for connecting with a plurality of optical waveguides.  
     
     
         4 . A method for separating optical energy comprising the steps of: 
 forming a light circuit having a first optical path and a second optical path;    propagating an optical beam having a first and a second information channel contained therein along the first optical path towards a filtering device;    separating the optical beam into at least two beams, a first beam containing the first information channel and second beam containing the second information channel;    passing the first beam through the filtering device and reflecting the second beam off of the filtering device; and    propagating the reflected second beam along the second path away from the first beam, whereby modal disruption and losses of the optical energy entering and exiting the light circuit due to alignment with other light carrying devices is reduced while an amount of hardware and size associated with the light circuit are minimized.    
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the steps of: 
 forming additional light paths within the light circuit; and    propagating additional channels of information within the optical beam.    
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , further comprising the steps of: forming a plurality of light circuits; and 
 connecting the plurality of light circuits with a plurality of optical waveguides.