Patent ID: 7826697

Claim:
An optical device comprising: a guiding member for guiding optical signals, said optical signals constituting a work piece; a first array of apertures disposed on at least one side of said guiding member and serving as an interface for connecting one or more input fibers and one or more output fibers to said guiding member; a second array of apertures disposed on another side of said guiding member and serving as a free-space interface for optical signals of said one or more input fibers and said one or more output fibers; and three or more waveguides, wherein each said waveguide connects at least one aperture of said first array of apertures to at least one aperture of said second array of apertures, wherein said apertures of said second array of apertures are predominately equally spaced relative to one another, and wherein one or more apertures of said second array of apertures, corresponding to said one or more output fibers, has unequal spacing relative to said predominately equally spaced apertures of said second array.