3M employee and church chorister Art Fry needed something to temporarily mark pages in his hymnal. He was in luck because his colleague, Spencer Silver, accidentally developed a glue that was too weak for other purposes. After initially discouraging consumer response, Post-it Notes became a hit in 1979.
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| Number | Title | Issue Date |
| 7912374 | High isolation wavelength division devices Techniques for designing optical devices with high reflection isolation are disclosed. According to one aspect of the devices, an optical filter and a reflecting element are used. Depending on implementation, the reflecting element may be another optical filter, a p... | 03/22/2011 |
| 7843644 | Compact free-space WDM device with one-sided input/output ports Techniques for designing compact free-space optical device with all input/output ports on one side are disclosed. Instead of folding a fiber, a beam folding means is provided to turn a light beam to significantly reduce the size of the device. In one embodiment, the... | 11/30/2010 |
| 7741606 | Motor driven variable optical attenuator with IR sensor closed-loop control Attenuators used to regulate optical signals are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, an assembly including an IR source and an IR sensor is provided to sense blockage of optical signals transmitted between two collimators via a fixed common ... | 06/22/2010 |
| 7672554 | Space expanders in optical devices New designs of optical devices, particularly for multiplexing or demultiplexing as well as adding or dropping are disclosed. According to one aspect of the designs, one or more beam redirecting parts (e.g., prisms or mirrors) are used in an optical device to redirec... | 03/02/2010 |
| 7529459 | Electrical reset of optical functions for tunable fiber optical devices Control of attenuators used to regulate optical signals is disclosed. An assembly including an IR source and an IR sensor is provided to sense blockage of optical signals transmitted between two collimators via a fixed common light blocker that is driven by a motor.... | 05/05/2009 |
| 7504630 | Method and apparatus for attenuating a light beam Attenuators used to regulate optical signals are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, an assembly including an IR source and an IR sensor is provided to sense blockage of optical signals transmitted between two collimators via a fixed common ... | 03/17/2009 |
| 7486891 | Multi-port high isolation filters Techniques for designing optical devices with high isolation are disclosed. The high isolation is achieved by causing a reflected light signal to go through another filter. According to one embodiment, an optical apparatus comprises a first optical filter configured... | 02/03/2009 |
| 7440163 | Compact passive module for erbium and other fiber amplifiers Techniques for designing optical devices with passive components for erbium and other doped fiber amplifiers are disclosed. In one aspect, all passive components needed to construct optical amplifiers of both single and multiple-stage forward or backward pumps are i... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7440156 | Integrated fiber optical attenuator with monotonic attenuation Designs of optical devices for attenuating a light signal are disclosed. According to embodiment, an attenuator includes a screw and a light blocker, wherein the light blocker has only translational movements when the screw is screwed in or out. To facilitate the li... | 10/21/2008 |
| 7412124 | Optical module with high reflection isolation and compact size Techniques for designing optical devices with high reflection isolation are disclosed. According to one aspect of the devices, a pair of conjugate optical filters is used. To preserve the performance of the filters and minimize insertion loss, a lens has a first sid... | 08/12/2008 |
| 7289733 | High reflection isolation optical devices and the method for making the same New designs of optical devices, particularly for adding or dropping a selected wavelength or a group of wavelengths as well as multiplexing a plurality of signals into a multiplexed signal or demultiplexing a multiplexed signal into several signals are disclosed. Ac... | 10/30/2007 |
| 7262904 | Tunable optical add/drop device Improved designs of optical devices for processing optical signals with one or more specified wavelengths are disclosed. According to embodiment, a filter mirror assembly appears an āLā shape and provides a filtering function as well as a reflecting function. Th... | 08/28/2007 |
| 7224865 | Optical multiplexing/multiplexing devices and method for making the same Techniques for designing optical devices that can be manufactured in volume are disclosed. An optical assembly is build individually and includes a first tube with one end being polished to a slanted angle and attached with a filter. Because of the slanted angle, a ... | 05/29/2007 |
| 7212343 | Compact wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer and method for making the same Designs of multiplexing/demultiplexing modules configured for N channels are disclosed. One of the features in the designs is to provide at least one concave mirror for compenstating filter tilting errors. The concave mirrors is placed where an incident traveling di... | 05/01/2007 |
| 7127169 | Fiber optic tunable add-drop multiplexer/demultiplexer Techniques for calibrating tunable optical devices using a probing signal as a reference so as to achieve an accurate control over an absolute wavelength of the tunable optical devices. A probing signal being a calibrated optical signal with a spectrum centered at a... | 10/24/2006 |
| 7103246 | Cost-effective packaging of fiber optical devices Techniques for designing optical couplers are disclosed. According to one aspect of the optical couplers, different from the prior art couplers, a holding tube (a sub-assembly) for holding an optical lens (e.g., a GRIN lens) and an optical filter (e.g., a thin film ... | 09/05/2006 |
| 7027734 | Dynamic multi-channel power equalizer and regulator Optical devices and methods for regulating optical channel signals with specified wavelengths are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a number of variable optical apparatuses are employed. Each of the variable optical apparatuses includes a ... | 04/11/2006 |
| 7013069 | Method and apparatus for separating channel signals Designs of optical devices particularly useful for separating channels signals that are originally multiplexed are disclosed. In accordance with one design, an optical filter configured to reflect a particular channel signal is positioned to receive a multiplexed si... | 03/14/2006 |
| 6999656 | Optical device with concave mirror New designs of optical devices, particularly for adding or dropping a selected wavelength or a group of wavelengths are disclosed. In one aspect, no collimators or the like are used. Instead, two fibers are coupled effectively via a concave mirror. Depending on the ... | 02/14/2006 |
| 6943938 | Tunable wavelength filter with invariant transmission and reflection beam angles Improved designs of optical devices for processing optical signals with own or more specified wavelengths are disclosed. According to embodiment, a filter mirror assembly appears an āLā shape and provides a filtering function as well as a reflecting function. Th... | 09/13/2005 |
| 6937809 | Variable attenuator optical add/drop devices Optical devices for adding/dropping an optical signal with a particular wavelength are disclosed. According to embodiment, a reflection channel module including a grin lens and a bandpass filter is employed to transmit the optical with a particular wavelength and re... | 08/30/2005 |
| 6931173 | MEMS optical switches with guaranteed switching status Techniques for controlling and monitoring MEMS optical switches are disclosed. In one embodiment, an electronic feedback loop is employed to determine a control signal to a MEMS switch actuator in accordance with an instruction. The control signal is so determined i... | 08/16/2005 |
| 6914722 | Fiber optical circulator A fiber optical circulator includes a first collimator and a second collimator sandwiching a circulator core therebetween. The first collimator and the second collimator respectively define Port 1 and Port 2 thereof, and the first collimator further de... | 07/05/2005 |
| 6904194 | Optical switch apparatus An optical switch apparatus is disclosed, which applies to the optical communication system or optical system for switching the optical path. The optical switch apparatus utilizes a servomotor rotates a circle mirror unit which two surfaces are coated or deposited a... | 06/07/2005 |
| 6894846 | Optical add/drop apparatus and the method for making the same New designs of optical devices, particularly for adding or dropping a selected wavelength or a group of wavelengths are disclosed. In one embodiment, an optical filter is positioned a distance from a first lens to form an assembly with a mechanical axis. The optical... | 05/17/2005 |
| 6856719 | Optical switch system The inventions invention relates to a generic re-configurable WDM optical cross connection device which may be viewed as an optical network element comprising transport interfaces optionally along with tributary interfaces. An switch system includes a plurality of s... | 02/15/2005 |
| 6826326 | Quasi-hitless tunable add-drop filters In tunable systems, during a tuning cycle, express channels or wavelengths are dropped as the system sweeps through its free spectral range (FSR) before stopping at the desired wavelength to be dropped. This is disadvantageous as the data information in the express ... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6823761 | Device for stripping coated optical fiber ribbons A device for stripping coated optical fiber ribbons, in cooperation with at least an optical fiber ribbon having a protective coating and an optical fiber array substrate having grooves, comprises a heating unit including at least a first trench and a cutting blade ... | 11/30/2004 |
| 6795610 | Tunable add-drop filters using two independent optical paths Techniques for adding and dropping a wavelength or band using two individual optical paths are disclosed. The two individual optical paths are configured to maintain one path active while the other is in stand-by setup or tuning mode. While one optical path is addin... | 09/21/2004 |
| 6791753 | Retro-reflective fiber optic interleaver Fiber optical interleavers based on a retro-reflective structure are disclosed. The retro-reflective structure includes three stages of optical components. A first stage includes walk-off crystals, at least one of the crystals is used to displace a received optical ... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6792183 | Method for bonding aligned optical parts and apparatus thereof Techniques for bonding aligned optical parts to a substrate are disclosed. According to one embodiment, one or more wedges are used to fill in gaps between aligned optical parts and a substrate. Using an appropriate material, the wedges are respectively slid in till... | 09/14/2004 |
| 6782183 | Method and apparatus for fiber array module A fiber array module fabrication method. The method includes the steps of: (a) preparing a optical fiber ribbon, a solder/binder coated fiber array substrate, and two holder bases, one holder base having longitudinally extended locating grooves; (b) putting the fibe... | 08/24/2004 |
| 6751375 | Self-referencing tunable add-drop filters Techniques for adding and dropping a desired band, channel or wavelength by calibrating optical tunable devices precisely for the desired wavelength are disclosed. An optical path is formed and includes two tunable devices and a circulator coupled between the two tu... | 06/15/2004 |
| 6748133 | Compact multiplexing/demultiplexing modules Improved designs of optical multiplexing/demultiplexing module are disclosed for use in multiplexing a composite optical signal into respective individual channels or wavelengths or demultiplexing individual channels or wavelengths into a composite optical signal. A... | 06/08/2004 |
| 6731841 | Folded waveguide optical devices Optical apparatus for combining and splitting optical signals using folded waveguides and method for making the same are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, at least one waveguide used in the optical apparatus is folded around according to a... | 05/04/2004 |
| 6678459 | Method for bonding two optical parts and apparatus thereof A method for bonding two or more optical parts and an optical apparatus of using the method are disclosed. According to one embodiment, two optical fiber segments are used as a spacer between two optical parts. The optical fiber segments may be cut off fr... | 01/13/2004 |
| 6674953 | Controllably variable optical attenuator A controllable attenuator includes a pair of collimators respectively connected to input and output fibers. A pair of reflection devices are respectively positioned behind the pair of collimators opposite to the corresponding input and output fibers. A U-... | 01/06/2004 |
| 6633371 | Optical performance monitors Method and apparatus for wavelength control and measurement are disclosed. An optical signal to be measured is tapped off a portion thereof referring to as a source signal. Together with a reference signal, the source signal is coupled to a tunable filter... | 10/14/2003 |
| 6560378 | Compact polarization couplers The present invention, generally speaking, provides compact design of optical couplers for combining two differently polarized light beams onto a collimator or splitting a composed light beam into two differently polarized light beams. According to anothe... | 05/06/2003 |
| 6546166 | Multi-stage optical DWDM channel group interleaver An optical fiber structure for demultiplexing/multiplexing includes a coupler which splits an incoming signal with multiple channels into two substantially identical signals that are respectively processed to separate the closely located successive channe... | 04/08/2003 |