Patent ID: 9337611
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: G02B,H01S

Claim Text:
1. A small, packaged tunable optical transmitter comprising: a rectangular housing having a volume of less than 0.6 cubic centimeters, with six planar exterior walls including a bottom, a top, opposing first and second ends, and opposing sidewalls, the exterior walls forming a hermetically-sealed interior space that includes a major axis that extends through the first and second ends; an electrical input interface positioned at the first end of the housing and aligned with the major axis, the electrical input interface configured to receive an information-containing electrical signal; an optical output interface positioned at the second end of the housing and aligned with the major axis, the optical output interface configured to transmit an optical communication beam; a tunable semiconductor laser positioned in the interior space of the rectangular housing and operable to emit a laser beam having a selectable wavelength along an optical path; a semiconductor-based modulator positioned in the interior space of the rectangular housing along the optical path of the laser beam to receive the laser beam from the tunable semiconductor laser and to impart modulation to the laser beam corresponding to the information-containing electrical signal received through the electrical input interface to produce a modulated laser beam; and a semiconductor optical amplifier positioned in the interior space of the rectangular housing and operably coupled to the output of the modulator to amplify the modulated laser beam and to output the amplified, modulated laser beam through the optical output interface.