Patent ID: 7893415

Claim:
An optical semiconductor relay device comprising: a pair of input terminals; a pair of output terminals; a plurality of FETs connected between said output terminals; and a drive circuit that drives said plurality of FETs; wherein a single control signal is supplied to said pair of input terminals and a single output signal is outputted to said pair of output terminals; said plurality of FETs are the same type and have their source electrodes electrically connected to each other; said drive circuit is configured so that gate electrodes of said FETs are not electrically short-circuited to each other; said FETs are turned on/off by said single control signal; and said drive circuit includes: an optical/electrical transducer that supplies a drive voltage to the gates of said plurality of FETs; and a discharge circuit, connected between the gate electrodes and the source electrodes of said plurality of FETs, that discharges electric charges accumulated on each gate electrode, wherein: said optical/electrical transducer is a single continuous photodiode array, said plurality of FETS include a first FET and a second FET, a drain electrode of said first FET is connected to one of said output terminals, and a drain electrode of said second FET is connected to the other of said output terminals.