Patent ID: 7224858

Claim:
An optical receiver photonic integrated circuit (RxPIC) comprising: a semiconductor monolithic chip having an input to receive from an optical transmission link a multiplexed channel signal originating from an optical transmitter source and comprising a plurality of channel signals having different wavelengths forming a wavelength grid; an optical decombiner integrated in the chip and optically coupled to the input to receive the multiplexed channel signal and provide a decombined individual channel signal on a respective output waveguide of a plurality of output waveguides from the optical decombiner; a plurality of photodetectors integrated in the chip and each optically coupled to one of the output waveguides to receive a decombined channel signal and convert the channel signal to an electrical signal; and an optical service channel (OSC) integrated on said chip to provide a service signal from said chip to the optical transmitter source and including a service channel modulator coupled to said optical service channel (OSC) and modulated to provide a service signal via said chip input through the optical transmission link to the optical transmitter source.