Integrated optical receiver/transmitter

Abstract

An integrated optical receiver/transmitter (transceiver) 8 has continuous wave (cw) light 16 that enters a Mach-Zehnder optical modulator 10 controlled by a modulator control circuit 12 that provides modulated light 30 along a waveguide 32 to an optical coupler 34 which couples a predetermined portion of the light 30 to a waveguide 44 as light 42 which then exits the transceiver from a port 46. Receive light 90 is accepted at the port 46 and travels along the waveguide 44 to the coupler 34 which couples a predetermined amount of the light 90 to a waveguide 70 as light 92 which is detected by a waveguide-integrated photodetector 72. The photodetector 72 provides a current signal on a line 74 to a receiver circuit 76 which provides a voltage signal indicative of the light 92. Alternatively, the coupler may be passive, thereby not requiring the coupler control circuit, or no coupler at all may be employed and two fibers used for communications with the transceiver 8.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.