The surprise and confusion caused by the simplicity and novelty of the universal beam splitter is well known to the staff at LightMachinery based on our interaction with customers on the phone and at trade shows. A simple thin etalon with a relatively low finesse has a reflection and transmission for any given wavelength that is very angle dependent. Change the angle and change the R/T ratio from 1/99 to 90/10 or anywhere in between. This novelty has now also been recognized by the US Patent Office.