1. A single-fiber launchreceive system comprising a single fiber that interfaces with a biosensor wherein said single fiber is able to output a sensor input beam to said biosensor by transporting a single mode therein to generate light for the sensor input beam and wherein said single fiber is able to receive a sensor output beam from said biosensor by using a collection of modes therein to collect light from the sensor output beam.
2. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 1, wherein said single fiber is a multimode fiber.
3. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 2, wherein said multimode fiber is a graded-index multimode fiber.
4. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 2, wherein a fundamental mode of the multimode fiber is excited by splicing a single mode fiber to a multimode fiber.
5. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 1, wherein said single fiber is a downjacketed singlemode fiber.
6. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 5, wherein said downjacketed singlemode fiber is a step-index, downjacketed singlemode fiber.
7. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 5, wherein said downjacketed singlemode fiber is made by surrounding a singlemode fiber with a fiber jacket that has a lower refractive index than a fiber cladding of the singlemode fiber.
8. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 7, wherein said fiber cladding is used to receive the sensor output beam from said biosensor.
9. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 1, further comprising a beam shaping optic located between said single fiber and said biosensor.
10. The single-fiber launchreceive system of claim 1, wherein said sensor input beam is not co-linear with said sensor output beam.
11. An interrogation system comprising:
a light source;
a light detector; and
a single-fiber launchreceive system which uses a single fiber to output a sensor input beam to a biosensor when said light source excites a single mode in the single fiber; and
said single-fiber launchreceive system also uses the single fiber to receive a sensor output beam from the biosensor by using a plurality of modes in the single fiber to collect light from the sensor output beam which is then received by said light detector.
12. The interrogation system of claim 11, further comprising a coupler located between said single-fiber launchreceive system and both of said light source and said light detector.
13. The interrogation system of claim 11, wherein said single fiber is a multimode fiber and wherein a single mode of said multimode fiber is excited by the light source by maximizing a spatial overlap of an output beam of the light source with the desired single mode of the multimode fiber.
14. The interrogation system of claim 11, wherein said single fiber is a multimode fiber that was coupled to the light source by splicing a singlemode fiber to a multimode fiber.
15. The interrogation system of claim 11, wherein said single fiber is a downjacketed singlemode fiber that was made by surrounding a singlemode fiber with a fiber coating jacket that has a lower index than a fiber cladding of the singlemode fiber.
16. The interrogation system of claim 11, further comprising a beam shaping optic located between said single-fiber launchreceive system and said biosensor.
17. The interrogation system of claim 11, wherein a plurality of said single-fiber launchreceive systems are used to interface with a plurality of said biosensors located in a microplate.
18. A method for interrogating a biosensor, said method comprising the steps of:
using a light source to excite a single mode in a single fiber so as to output a sensor input beam to said biosensor;
using a light detector to receive a sensor output beam from said single fiber which used a plurality of modes to receive said sensor output beam from said sensor; and
using a computer or electrical hardware to analyze said sensor output beam received by said light detector to determine whether or not there was a bio-chemical interaction on said biosensor.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein said single fiber is a multimode fiber.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein said multimode fiber is a graded-index multimode fiber.
21. The method of claim 19, wherein a single mode of said multimode fiber is excited by the light source by maximizing a spatial overlap of an output beam of the light source with the single mode of the multimode fiber.
22. The method of claim 19, wherein a single mode of said multimode fiber is excited by the light source by splicing a single mode fiber to a multimode fiber.
23. The method of claim 18, wherein said single fiber is a downjacketed singlemode fiber.
24. The method of claim 23, wherein said downjacketed singlemode fiber is made by surrounding a singlemode fiber with a fiber coating jacket that has a lower index than a fiber cladding of the singlemode fiber.
25. The method of claim 18, wherein said single fiber is associated with a concentric single-fiber launchreceive system.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
1. A method for the wavelength independent measurement or testing of the dispersion penalty, or dispersion tolerance, of optical transmitters, comprising:
selecting a predetermined physical length of non-dispersion shifted fiber (NDSF);
selecting a dispersion compensating module (DCM) that is designed for use with non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF), such that, when combined with the predetermined physical length of NDSF, the total dispersion of the two elements is constant as a function of wavelength; and
combining the predetermined physical length of NDSF with the DCM that is designed for use with NZDSF, thereby making the total dispersion of the two elements constant as a function of wavelength.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting the predetermined physical length of NDSF and the DCM based upon a desired total dispersion.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF is given by:
L=\u2212Dslope\u2014DCMDslope\u2014fiber
where Dslope\u2014DCM is the dispersion slope of the DCM and Dslope\u2014fiber is the dispersion slope per unit length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the total dispersion of the combined predetermined physical length of NDSF and the DCM is given by:
D=L*D0\u2014fiber+D0\u2014DCM
where L is the length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF, D0\u2014fiber is the dispersion per unit length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF at a predetermined wavelength, and D0\u2014DCM is the dispersion of the DCM at the predetermined wavelength.
5. The method of claim 1, further comprising combining the predetermined physical length of NDSF with the DCM in a single setup.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein the desired total dispersion is equivalent to the dispersion tolerance of a 10 Gbs optical signal.
7. The method of claim 2, wherein the desired total dispersion is 1600 psnm.
8. The method of claim 2, wherein the desired total dispersion is 2400 psnm.
9. The method of claim 5, further comprising measuring the dispersion penalty, or dispersion tolerance, of a plurality of optical transmitters using the single setup.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein the plurality of optical transmitters comprise a plurality of dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) optical transmitters operating at wavelengths between 1530 nm and 1565 nm.
11. A system for the wavelength independent measurement or testing of the dispersion penalty, or dispersion tolerance, of optical transmitters, comprising:
a predetermined physical length of non-dispersion shifted fiber (NDSF); and
a dispersion compensating module (DCM) that is designed for use with non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF) optically coupled to the predetermined physical length of NDSF,
wherein the predetermined physical length of NDSF and the DCM that is designed for use with NZDSF are selected such that the total dispersion of the two elements is constant as a function of wavelength.
12. The system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined physical length of NDSF and the DCM are selected based upon a desired total dispersion.
13. The system of claim 11, wherein the length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF is given by:
L=\u2212Dslope\u2014DCMDslope\u2014fiber
where Dslope\u2014DCM is the dispersion slope of the DCM and Dslope\u2014fiber is the dispersion slope per unit length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF.
14. The system of claim 11, wherein the total dispersion of the combined predetermined physical length of NDSF and the DCM is given by:
D=L*D0\u2014fiber+D0\u2014DCM
where L is the length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF, D0\u2014fiber is the dispersion per unit length of the predetermined physical length of NDSF at a predetermined wavelength, and D0\u2014DCM is the dispersion of the DCM at the predetermined wavelength.
15. The system of claim 11, wherein the predetermined physical length of NDSF and the DCM are combined in a single setup.
16. The system of claim 12, wherein the desired total dispersion is equivalent to the dispersion tolerance of a 10 Gbs optical signal.
17. The system of claim 12, wherein the desired total dispersion is 1600 psnm.
18. The system of claim 12, wherein the desired total dispersion is 2400 psnm.
19. The system of claim 15, wherein the single setup is operable for measuring the dispersion penalty, or dispersion tolerance, of a plurality of optical transmitters.
20. The system of claim 19, wherein the plurality of optical transmitters comprise a plurality of dense wavelength division multiplexed (DWDM) optical transmitters operating at wavelengths between 1530 nm and 1565 nm.
21. A method for the wavelength independent measurement or testing of the dispersion penalty, or dispersion tolerance, of optical transmitters, comprising:
selecting a predetermined physical length of non-dispersion shifted fiber (NDSF);
selecting a dispersion compensating module (DCM) that is designed for use with one of non-zero dispersion shifted fiber (NZDSF) and dispersion shifted fiber (DSF), such that, when combined with the predetermined physical length of NDSF, the total dispersion of the two elements is constant as a function of wavelength and
combining the predetermined physical length of NDSF with the DCM that is designed for use with one of NZDSF and DSF, thereby making the total dispersion of the two elements constant as a function of wavelength.