Did You Know...
...that several people are credited with the invention of the flush toilet? Most people have heard of Thomas Crapper (1837-1910), the sanitary engineer who invented the valve-and-siphon arrangement that made the modern toilet possible. Another claimant to "the throne" was British inventor Alexander Cumming who patented a toilet in 1775. Then there's a nameless Minoan (a native of ancient Crete) who lived 4,000 years ago who supposedly was ahead of his time and created the first flush toilet!
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 6389209 | Strain free planar optical waveguides The present invention is directed to a planar optical waveguide comprising a waveguide core layer interposed between upper and lower cladding layers, characterized in that a so-called "effective" coefficient of thermal expansion of the layer containing th... | 05/14/2002 |
| 6323987 | Controlled multi-wavelength etalon A multi-wavelength etalon suitable for tuning and maintaining the operating frequency of a laser used in an optical communication system is disclosed. The communication system has a representative channel wavelength and a channel spacing. The etalon has a... | 11/27/2001 |
| 6290805 | System and method for using a pick and place apparatus A system is provided for removing large semiconductor work pieces from an adhesive film. A pick and place apparatus is provided with a collet bar with elongated sides and opposed ends. A channel extends into a cavity on a lower surface of the collet bar. ... | 09/18/2001 |
| 6282344 | Intersecting N x M star couplers for routing optical signals Overlapped coupler combination Photonic Lightguide Circuits for routing optical signals within an optical communication system include at least two couplers whose planar slab waveguides are disposed in supportedly overlying relation so as to conserve wafe... | 08/28/2001 |
| 6275516 | Article for detecting power drift in the putout of a diode array source A method and article for monitoring and controlling power drift in the output of a diode array is described. The diode array is used, for example, as a light pump for a fiber laser. In one embodiment, an improved fiber laser includes the light pump, which... | 08/14/2001 |
| 6275317 | Hybrid integration of a wavelength selectable laser source and optical amplifier/modulator A hybrid integrated optical transmitter comprising a wavelength selectable laser (WSL) source coupled to an optical amplifier/modulator has been realized. Disposed between the optical combiner and the optical amplifier/modulator is an "optical isolator." ... | 08/14/2001 |
| 6272157 | Apparatus and method for calibrating a wavelength stabilized laser A wavelength stabilized laser system includes a laser that produces a laser light having an amplitude and a wavelength that varies as a function of a temperature of the laser. A temperature control device controls the temperature of the laser. A beam spli... | 08/07/2001 |
| 6261857 | Process for fabricating an optical waveguide A process for fabricating a waveguide with a desired tapered profile is disclosed. The waveguide has a first section with a first height and a second section with a second height. The first height is greater than the second height. The waveguide height ta... | 07/17/2001 |
| 6253005 | Apparatus and method for compensating for misalignment in reflective packages An optical package includes a dual fiber termination having a first optical fiber end portion and a second optical fiber end portion. A collimating lens, spaced from the dual fiber termination, is configured for collimating and transmitting an optical sig... | 06/26/2001 |
| 6252253 | Patterned light emitting diode devices An LED device that emits light in a pattern is disclosed. The LED device is a layer of active material that is sandwiched between a transparent substrate with an anode formed thereon and a cathode. The active material has a layer of light emitting materia... | 06/26/2001 |
| 6249619 | Optical isolator An optical isolator which is suitable for array assembly and may be produced by lithographically-defined means comprises a sandwich of layers. These layers include a substrate having two waveguides for transmission of a signal having two parts, each part ... | 06/19/2001 |
| 6246511 | Apparatus and method to compensate for optical fiber amplifier gain variation A system is provided for partially or completely offsetting optical fiber amplifier gain spectrum variations due to temperature by setting the optical pump signal leading into the amplifier to a desired wavelength value. Optical fiber amplifiers have gain... | 06/12/2001 |
| 6243402 | Multi-frequency rapidly tunable laser A tunable laser incorporating an N1×N.sub.2 chirped waveguide grating router that has N1 N2 wavelengths, accessible in a digitally rapid manner, and using only N1 +N2 +1 semiconductor optical amplifi... | 06/05/2001 |
| 6243403 | Method and apparatus for integrated optical wavelength stabilization A wavelength-stabilized laser system includes a laser that produces a laser light. The laser light has an amplitude and a wavelength that varies with the temperature of the laser and/or a bias signal provided to the laser. A temperature control device con... | 06/05/2001 |
| 6240114 | Multi-quantum well lasers with selectively doped barriers An MQW laser comprises an active region in which a multiplicity of barriers each includes a doped barrier layer separated from its adjacent quantum well layers by undoped barrier layers. In a preferred embodiment, each barrier of an InGaAsP/InP SCH MQW la... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6240222 | Wavelength specific operations in optical systems An optical apparatus comprised of a combination multiplexer/demultiplexer, a main coupling device which is preferably a main circulator, and a transition device having various forms. The combination multiplexer/demultiplexer can be comprised of a first bi... | 05/29/2001 |
| 6236781 | Duplicated-port waveguide grating router having substantially flat passbands A duplicated-port waveguide grating router is provided that includes a first free space region configured to receive an optical signal from at least one input waveguide. An optical grating comprising a plurality of waveguides is connected to the first fre... | 05/22/2001 |
| 6229830 | Burst-mode lase techniques Power control for a laser is performed on at least a per-packet basis, rather than a per-pulse basis, and that end-of-life detection may similarly be performed. This is achieved by accumulating the current generated by a photodiode in response to the ligh... | 05/08/2001 |
| 6219165 | Burst-mode laser techniques Power control for a laser used for bust mode communication as well as end-of-life detection for the laser are performed in a combined manner, resulting in a savings in both cost and power consumption. This is achieved by employing a peak comparator which ... | 04/17/2001 |
