Patent ID: 11914193
Assignee: CORNING RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. An optical assembly comprising:
a first planar lightwave circuit (PLC) member including a first body structure bounded by a first inner face and a first outer face, and defining a plurality of first waveguides in or on the first body structure, wherein the plurality of first waveguides extends between a first input optical surface and a first output optical surface of the first body structure, and wherein the first output surface is an optical surface of the first body structure and in a transverse plane orthogonal to the first inner face and the first outer face; and
a second PLC member including a second body structure bounded by a second inner face and a second outer face, and defining a plurality of second waveguides in or on the second body structure, wherein the plurality of second waveguides extends between a second input optical surface and a second output optical surface of the second body structure, and wherein the second output surface is an optical surface of the second body structure and in a transverse plane orthogonal to the second inner face and the second outer face;
wherein the first and second PLC members are in a stacked arrangement with the first inner face of the first PLC member facing the second inner face of the second PLC member, and with the optical surface of the first PLC member aligned with the optical surface of the second PLC member; and
wherein the plurality of first waveguides is arranged in a first horizontal plane at both the first input optical surface and the first output optical surface, the plurality of second waveguides is arranged in a second horizontal plane at both the second input optical surface and the second output optical surface, the second horizontal plane is vertically offset from the first horizontal plane such that the plurality of first waveguides is vertically offset from the plurality of second waveguides at the first and second input optical surfaces and at the first and second output optical surfaces, with the transverse plane including ends of the plurality of first waveguides and ends of the plurality of second waveguide alternately arranged in a lateral direction.