Patent ID: 8532451

Claim:
An optical transmitter comprising: three or more emission optical fibers that are three-dimensionally arranged; a single reception optical fiber; and an optical path converting component to optically couple the emission optical fibers to the reception optical fiber, the optical path converting component including optical transmission portions that are optically coupled to the three or more emission optical fibers one to one, respectively, and optically coupled commonly to the single reception optical fiber, entry ends of the optical transmission portions being aligned with exit ends of the three or more emission optical fibers, respectively, exit ends of the optical transmission portions being aligned, as a whole, with an entry end of the single reception optical fiber, the exit ends of the optical transmission portions being arranged substantially parallel to one another and in closer proximity to one another than the entry ends of the optical transmission portions; wherein the optical path converting component comprises rigid light guiding path substrates to which the optical transmission portions are distributed, the rigid light guiding path substrates being adjacently arranged to be in surface contact, the exit ends of the optical transmission portions being located in closer proximity to a contact surface of the rigid light guiding path substrates than the entry ends of the optical transmission portions.