Research/Patents/US 5208697
US 5208697

MICROWAVE FREQUENCY RANGE ELECTRO-OPTIC MODULATOR WITH EFFICIENT INPUT COUPLING AND SMOOTH WIDEBAND FREQUENCY RESPONSE

Assignee

HUGHES AIRCRAFT COMPANY, LOS ANGELES, CA A DE CORP.

Filed

Mar 30, 1990

Granted

May 4, 1993

Location

CHATSWORTH CA US

Abstract

A travelling-wave Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator (10) for operation at microwave electrical input signal frequencies has an electrical modulation electrode structure (26,34) which constitutes a coplanar waveguide (24). An electrical input signal connector (80) is coupled to a microstrip line (38) having an output impedance which is significantly different from the input impedance of the waveguide (24). A Chebyshev impedance matching transformer (50) couples the input signal from the input connector (80) to the modulation electrode structure (26,34), while matching the output impedance of the microstrip line (38) to the input impedance of the waveguide (24) to maximize the coupling efficiency and minimize return loss. The modulator (10) is mounted on a block (70) of magnetically loaded epoxide material which absorbs spurious resonant microwave emissions, and enables the modulator (10) to operate with smooth frequency response over a wide range of microwave input frequencies.

Source: Google Patents

35 USC §181 Secrecy Order

Imposed

Sep 21, 1990

Rescinded

Aug 6, 1992

Duration

1 year, 10 months

Inventor

  • 1JAMES H. SCHAFFNER

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Back to patent indexSource: USPTO 35 USC §181 secrecy order records