Soft Deployable Structures via Core-Shell Inflatables.

Deployable structures capable of significant geometric reconfigurations are ubiquitous in nature. While engineering contraptions typically comprise articulated rigid elements, soft structures that experience material growth for deployment mostly remain the handiwork of biology, e.g.

One-dimensional to two-dimensional channel formatting with micro-optics for wavelength division multiplexing networks.

We present a method of interfacing a conventional wavelength multiplexing and demultiplexing device with a two-dimensional (2-D) array of surface-active elements, such as micro-electromechanical system devices or photodetectors. We use diffractive optical elements to transform wavelength division multiplexed signals spread along a line into a 2-D array. We applied this technique to build a device that is compatible with an arrayed-waveguide grating.

Design, implementation, and characterization of a folded spot-array generator for a modulator-based free-space optical interconnect.

A folded structured light generator is presented. This spot generator is to be used in a modulator-based free-space optical interconnect. Three cascaded diffractive optical elements produce 4 x 8 clusters on an 800 microm x 1600 microm pitch, in which each cluster is a 4 x 4 array of 13.