Patent 7184631 was granted and assigned to NGK Insulators on February, 2007 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An optical device includes an optical input waveguide, a branch/cross waveguide, an optical output waveguide and connection waveguides that connect the optical input and optical output waveguides to the cross/branch waveguide. The spot size of light propagating through the cross/branch waveguide is larger than the spot size of light propagating through optical input waveguides, the optical output waveguides, or the connection waveguides.