Patent ID: 7116479

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a housing having a plurality of at least four ports, each of the plurality of ports coupled to a corresponding one of a plurality of at least four fibers; a plurality of collimating lenses disposed within the housing, each of the plurality of collimating lenses to receive a respective one of at least four light beams from a corresponding port of the plurality of at least four ports; and a beamsplitter coupled to the plurality of collimating lenses to receive the light beam from each of the plurality of collimating lenses, the beamsplitter having a common optical aperture disposed on an outer surface area to simultaneously receive the four light beams, on the outer surface area of the common optical aperture, from each of the plurality of collimating lenses, wherein the beamsplitter comprises a prism, and wherein the beamsplitter has an inner surface and each of the light beams have a P-polarized and a S-polarized component, and wherein the beamsplitter has a coating on the inner surface to separate the S-polarized and P-polarized components of the light beam into spatially separate beams.