ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,341,320, issued on June 24, was assigned to FUJIKURA LTD. (Tokyo).

"Optical combiner and laser apparatus" was invented by Ryokichi Matsumoto (Chiba, Japan), Tomoyuki Fujita (Chiba, Japan) and Kiwamu Suzuki (Chiba, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An optical combiner includes: first optical input portions each including a first optical input waveguide; and an optical output portion to which the first optical input portions are connected and that includes a first core that allows light to propagate therethrough, and a cladding layer disposed outside of the first core and that has a refractive index lower than a refractive index of the ...