Patent ID: 7010185

Claim:
A method of providing a semiconductor transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) chip comprising the steps of: fabricating a monolithic semiconductor transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) chip having a plurality of modulated wavelength sources having different wavelengths approximating a standardized grid of wavelengths with their respective modulated signal outputs optically combined with an integrated optical combiner to provide a combined signal output; eliminating from the fabricating step the integration of any on-chip amplification for the modulated signal outputs or the combined signal output; and coupling the combined signal output, instead, into an off-chip booster optical fiber amplifier at an output of the chip prior to launching the combined signal output on an optical link so that the absence of on-chip amplification on the TxPIC chip reduces chip complexity by eliminating active on-chip amplifiers and reduces resultant power consumption and heat load on the TxPIC chip due to the elimination of the requirement for current bias to operate such active on-chip amplifiers.