Patent ID: 6762843
Filing Date: 2004-07-13
Classification: G02B

Abstract:
A modular device for interferometric recombination of a plurality of electromagnetic or UHF beams or beams in higher frequency bands including optical frequencies from infrared via the visible spectrum to ultraviolet, said beams being obtained from a single source by associated collectors (21, 22, 23) which synthesize a single large collector, characterized in that said device includes at least one module including:at least one splitter assembly (31) incorporating a beam splitter (5) comprising interceptor means (Si, S2, S3 or S4) positioned to split an incident beam from one of said collectors into portions, one of said portions passing through an aperture in the splitter, and another of said portions being intercepted by one or more surfaces of the interceptor means that are each adapted to reflect a beam portion in a different given direction, and at least one coupler (42) which is adapted to effect interferometric recombination of the beams that it receives, and which comprises locally spliced waveguides in accordance with an X or Y structure, each of the waveguides receiving a beam from a different one of said collectors, and at least one of said waveguides receiving a beam consisting of one of the portions resulting from the splitting effected by a beam splitter.