Patent attributes
New designs of optical devices, particularly for adding or dropping a selected wavelength or a group of wavelengths as well as multiplexing a plurality of signals into a multiplexed signal or demultiplexing a multiplexed signal into several signals are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, a reflected light beam from an optical filter is caused to go through the same optical filter at least one more time to minimize a residual signal embedded in the reflected light beam, wherein the residential signal is caused by the imperfect spectral characteristics of the optical filter. According to another aspect of the present invention, a reflective element is so positioned that the reflected light beam is bounced back to the optical filter. When the reflective element is another optical filter being substantially similar to that optical filter, the reflected light beam is equivalent to having transmitted. As a result, the residual signal in the reflected light beam is substantially minimized, resulting in great isolation for the R-channel from the T-channel.
