Modular optical transceiver

An optical transceiver for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber comprising:

• a housing comprising a base member and a cover member forming a pluggable module, the housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting and/or receiving an information-containing electrical communications signal, and a fiber optic connector adapted for coupling with an external optical fiber for transmitting and/or receiving an optical communications signal;
• a transmitter subassembly disposed in the housing including (i) first and second lasers operating at different wavelengths and modulated with respective first and second electrical signals for emitting first and second laser light beams and (ii) a multiplexer for receiving the first and second beams and multiplexing the respective optical signals into a single multi-wavelength beam that is coupled to the fiber optic connector;
• a receiver subassembly disposed in the housing including (i) an optical demultiplexer coupled to said fiber optic connector for receiving a multi-wavelength optical signal having a plurality of information-containing signals each with a different predetermined wavelength and demultiplexing the optical signal into distinct optical beams corresponding to the predetermined wavelengths and (ii) a plurality of photodiodes functioning to convert a respective optical beam into an electrical signal;
• and
• a communications protocol processing subassembly coupled to the transmitter subassembly and receiver subassembly, the communications protocol processing subassembly disposed in the housing for processing the communications signal into a predetermined electrical or optical communications protocol supporting at least a 10 Gigabit data rate;
• and
• wherein at least a portion of one of the subassemblies is directly coupled to a surface of the housing using a thermally conductive material so that the heat from the portion of the subassembly is dissipated to the housing.

An optical transceiver for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber comprising:

• a housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting and/or receiving an information-containing electrical communications signal, and a fiber optic connector adapted for coupling with an external optical fiber for transmitting and/or receiving an optical communications signal;
• a modular, interchangeable communications protocol processing subassembly detachably disposed in the housing for processing the communications signal into a predetermined electrical or optical communications protocol supporting at least a 10 Gigabit data rate,
• a modular transmitter subassembly detachably disposed in the housing and coupled to the communications protocol processing subassembly, the transmitter subassembly comprising (i) first and second lasers operating at different wavelengths to emit first and second laser light beams corresponding to first and second electrical signals, (ii) a multiplexer for multiplexing the first and second laser light beams into a single multi-wavelength beam that is coupled to the fiber optic connector and (iii) a first electrical interconnect;
• and
• a modular receiver subassembly detachably disposed in the housing and coupled to the communications protocol processing subassembly, the receiver subassembly comprising (i) an optical demultiplexer arranged to demultiplex a multiplexed optical signal from the fiber optic connector into constituent optical beams, (ii) a plurality of photodiodes arranged to convert a respective constituent optical beam into a corresponding electrical signal and (iii) a second electrical interconnect;
• wherein the transmitter subassembly, receiver subassembly and the protocol processing subassembly allow the transceiver to be reconfigured.

An optical transceiver for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber comprising:

• a housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting and/or receiving an information-containing electrical communications signal, and a fiber optic connector adapted for coupling with an external optical fiber for transmitting and/or receiving an optical communications signal;
• at least one electro-optical subassembly in the housing for converting between an information-containing electrical signal and a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signal;
• a communications protocol processing subassembly in the housing for processing the communications signal into a predetermined electrical or optical communications protocol;
• and
• a thermally conductive gap pad disposed between at least one of the electro-optical subassemblies and the housing for dissipating heat from the at least one subassembly.