Patent ID: 8208507

Claim:
An optical transceiver module comprising: a module housing; a printed circuit board at least partially positioned inside the module housing; a receiver optical subassembly (ROSA) at least partially positioned inside the module housing; and a transmitter optical subassembly (TOSA) at least partially positioned inside the module housing, the TOSA comprising: a TOSA package; a laser positioned inside the TOSA package; a sensor configured to monitor an amount of laser bias current provided to the laser without directly monitoring the temperature of any portion of the optical transceiver module; a heating element positioned inside the TOSA package and configured to heat the laser; and control circuitry coupled to the heating element and the sensor, wherein the control circuitry is configured to: determine a relationship between the temperature of the laser and the laser bias current provided to the laser, adjust an amount of current provided to the heating element when a reading from the sensor indicates that the laser bias current being provided to the laser is below a value that the temperature to bias current relationship associates with a desired temperature, and adjust the amount of current provided to the heating element without input from a temperature sensor that directly monitors the temperature of at least a portion of the optical transceiver module, and wherein providing current to the heating element causes a change in the operating temperature of the laser.