7 August 2003 Redmond WA Lightwave Europe--Terabeam Corp, a provider of broadband wireless systems, has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has awarded the company two additional patents relating to its Free Space Optics and high frequency Millimeter Wave systems.
The new patents cover a technique for using holographic optical elements to greatly simplify the design of FSO transceivers and a device for measuring the attenuation characteristics of building windows during the deployment of FSO and MMW systems.
Patent 6,597,476 covers an apparatus for shaping and separating the transmitted and received laser light communication signals in an FSO transceiver using holographic optical elements (holograms).
Traditionally, FSO transceivers have used numerous lenses, mirrors, and beam-splitters to direct light energy to the various components in the system. Terabeam's holographic technology achieves the same functionality with significantly fewer components and can allow FSO transceivers to be smaller, thinner, more lightweight and less expensive to produce.
Patent 6,603,554 addresses Terabeam's innovative Window Attenuation Meter (WAM). Terabeam systems are unique in that they can be used safely indoors by sending and receiving transmissions through windows.
The WAM is a portable, battery-powered device that measures the loss (attenuation) of signal strength introduced by the window from the inside of the window, without requiring access to both sides, as has been required by other such devices.
With the hundreds of coatings and properties of various types of glass, assessing that attenuation is critical to achieving high reliability standards. Terabeam's WAM won a gold medal in the 2002 Industrial Design Excellence Awards from the International Design Society of America (IDSA).
In addition to these new patents, Terabeam has over 79 additional innovations in various stages of the patent process.
The company holds patents in the U.S. in the areas of network control, optical system pointing and mounting, MMW modulation and holographic optics, as well as patents in Japan and Taiwan.
Terabeam is a leading provider of wireless fibre (broadband wireless) solutions that extend and optimize carrier and enterprise networks. The company's wireless fiber solutions use high frequency Millimeter Wave (60 GHz radio frequency) and Free Space Optics (invisible light beam) technologies.
Operating at speeds of 125 Mbit/s to 1.25 Gbit/s, MMW and FSO systems enable network service providers and enterprise customers to achieve high bandwidth connectivity at significantly lower costs and deployment times than other high-data-rate technologies.