US Patent 7454101 Tunable optical dispersion compensators

A tunable optical dispersion compensator includes an optical input port, an input variable optical coupler, at least two optical dispersion paths, an output variable optical coupler, and an optical output port. The input variable optical coupler is coupled to selectively split portions of the optical signal received from the optical input port into each of its output ports. The optical dispersion paths are each coupled to one of the output ports of the input variable optical coupler to impart dispersion compensation to each of the split portions of the optical signal. An output variable optical coupler selectively combines the split portions of the optical signal received on its input ports from the optical dispersion paths. The optical output port is coupled to the output variable optical coupler to output a dispersion compensated optical signal.