PATENT CLAIM ANALYSIS

Application Number: 16159310
Application Type: Utility
Filing Date: 2018-10
Publication Date: 2019-02
Patent Classification: ["385", "011000"]

Abstract:
An optical coupler array can include an elongated optical element having a coupler housing structure and at least one longitudinal waveguide embedded in said housing structure. The housing structure can have an outer cross sectional shape comprising a first side comprising one or more curved portions and a second side comprising one or more flat portions. The second side can be disposed at a distance from the at least one longitudinal waveguide such that waveguiding properties are preserved and not disturbed.

Claim (Index 1):
An optical coupler array for optical coupling of a plurality of optical fibers to an optical device, comprising:\n an elongated optical element having a first end operable to optically couple with said plurality of optical fibers, an intermediate cross section, and a second end operable to optically couple with said optical device, and comprising:\n a common single coupler housing structure; a plurality of longitudinal waveguides each positioned at a predetermined spacing from one another, each having a capacity for at least one optical mode of a predetermined mode field profile, each embedded in said common single housing structure proximally to said second end, wherein at least one of said plurality of longitudinal waveguides is a vanishing core waveguide, each said at least one vanishing core waveguide comprising:\n an inner vanishing core, having a first refractive index (N- 1 ), and having a first inner core size (ICS- 1 ) at said first end, an intermediate inner core size (ICS-IN) at said intermediate cross section, and a second inner core size (ICS- 2 ) at said second end; an outer core, longitudinally surrounding said inner core, having a second refractive index (N- 2 ), and having a first outer core size (OCS- 1 ) at said first end, an intermediate outer core size (OCS-IN) at said intermediate cross section, and a second outer core size (OCS- 2 ) at said second end, and an outer cladding, longitudinally surrounding said outer core, having a third refractive index (N- 3 ), a first cladding size at said first end, and a second cladding size at said second end; and wherein said common single coupler housing structure comprises a transversely contiguous medium having a fourth refractive index (N- 4 ) surrounding said plurality of longitudinal waveguides, wherein a predetermined relative magnitude relationship between said first, second, third and fourth refractive indices (N- 1 , N- 2 , N- 3 , and N- 4 , respectively), comprises the following magnitude relationship: (N- 1 >N- 2 >N- 3 ), wherein a total volume of said medium of said common single coupler housing structure is greater than a total volume of all said vanishing core waveguides inner cores and said outer cores confined within said common single coupler housing structure, and wherein said first inner vanishing core size (ICS- 1 ), said first outer core size (OCS- 1 ), and said predetermined spacing between said plurality of longitudinal waveguides, are simultaneously and gradually reduced, in accordance with a predetermined reduction profile, between said first end and said second end along said optical element, until said second inner vanishing core size (ICS- 2 ) and said second outer core size (OCS- 2 ) are reached, wherein said intermediate inner vanishing core size (ICS-IN) is selected to be insufficient to guide light therethrough, and said intermediate outer core size (OCS-IN) is selected to be sufficient to guide at least one optical mode, and said second outer core size (OCS- 2 ) is selected to be insufficient to guide light therethrough such that: \n light traveling from said first end to said second end escapes from said inner vanishing core into said corresponding outer core proximally to said intermediate cross section, and escapes from said outer core into a combined waveguide formed by at least two neighboring outer cores proximally to said second end, and \n at least one waveguide mode of light traveling from said second end to said first end moves from the combined waveguide formed by at least two neighboring outer cores into said outer core proximally to said intermediate cross section, and moves from said outer core into said corresponding inner vanishing core proximally to said first end, \n and wherein said common single coupler housing structure has an outer cross sectional shape comprising a first side comprising one or more curved portions and a second side comprising one or more flat portions, wherein said second side is disposed at a distance from said plurality of longitudinal waveguides such that waveguiding properties are preserved and not disturbed.

Metadata:
- Claim Count in Document: 14.0
- Percentile: 97.0
- Lexical Diversity: 1.64706
- Patent Class: 385.0
- Transitional Phrase Type: open
- Component Type: 1
- Foreign Priority: False
- Related Applications: ['15811462', '15459730', '15272216', '15374854', '15204952']

Analysis Scores:
- 35 USC 101 Eligibility (BERT): 0.892560736520136
- 35 USC 102 Novelty (BERT): 0.6128284977765093
- Combined Prediction Score: 0.8645875126457734
- Mean Citation Score: 500.4034
- Max Citation Score: 520.11847
- Similarity Product: 514.4543452094895

Labels:
- Claim Label 101: 1
- Claim Label 102: 1
- Claim Label 103: 1
- Claim Label 112: 1
- Combined Label: 1
- Label 101 Adjusted: 1

Dataset: test