Patent ID: 7218864

Claim:
An optical wavelength locking apparatus, comprising: a plurality of optical sources for generating respective optical signals; a plurality of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) for controlling temperatures of the plurality of optical sources; a plurality of optical taps for sampling the optical signals generated from the optical sources; and an optical wavelength locking unit, comprising, a first switch for receiving the sampled optical signals from the plurality of optical taps and for selectively switching between the sampled optical signals; an optical wavelength filter for receiving a sampled optical signal selected by the first switch and for outputting a set of electrical signals proportional to the wavelength fluctuation of the selected sampled optical signal; a second switch for receiving sets of electrical signals corresponding to wavelength fluctuations of selected sampled optical signals from the optical wavelength filter and for selectively switching between the received sets of electrical signals; and a control circuit for generating a control signal based on a difference between electrical signals in the selected set of electrical signals, the control signal being operatively connected to one of the plurality of TECs corresponding to the selected sampled optical signal for controlling the wavelength fluctuation of the selected sampled optical signal, wherein the optical wavelength locking unit is useable for the plurality of optical signals eliminating the need for a different optical wavelength locking unit for each of the optical signals.