Patent ID: 11886005
Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 0:
1. A light source with a monitoring function, comprising:
m sets of multiplexers configured to multiplex light output from n connection waveguides being a plurality of connection waveguides,
a multiplexing unit configured to input and multiplex light output from the m sets of the multiplexers from m input waveguides,
an output waveguide configured to output light multiplexed by the multiplexing unit,
n×m or m branching units being inserted into n×m connection waveguides of the plurality of connection waveguides or the m input waveguides,
n×m laser diodes each optically coupled to a corresponding one of the connection waveguides, the n×m laser diodes being mounted to a laser diode mount that is separte from a substrate that mounts the m sets of multiplexers, the n connection waveguides, the output waveguide, and the n×m or m branching units,
wherein a first one of the n×m laser diodes is configured as an active laser diode and a second one of the n×m laser diodes is configured as a standby laser diode, the monitoring function configured to:
detect a degradation in an operation of the first one of the n×m laser diodes, and
in response, switch to the operation of the second one of the n×m laser diodes by moving the laser diode mount such that a fixed position occupied by the first one of the n×m laser diodes before the laser diode mount is moved is occupied by the second one of the n×m laser diodes after the laser diode mount is moved.