Patent ID: 7463828

Claim:
An optical channel monitor of an optical input signal that includes a plurality of optical channels, the optical channel monitor comprising: a collimator to collimate the optical input signal and to project collimated light; a light dispersion element that diffracts the projected collimated light into spectrally-spaced optical channels; a reflector that receives and reflects the spectrally-spaced optical channels back to the light dispersion element; the light dispersion element receives the reflected spectrally-spaced optical channels and further separates and diffracts the reflected optical channels; the collimator receiving and focusing the further diffracted spectrally-spaced optical channels; a first optical waveguide that receives the focused spectrally-spaced optical channels from the collimator; a pivoting mechanism that pivots at least one of the light dispersion element and the reflector to spectrally sweep the spectrally-spaced optical channels across the first optical waveguide, the first optical waveguide receiving sequentially each optical channel; and a first mirror disposed adjacent to the light dispersion element that provides a first optical reference signal indicative of a first relative position of at least one of the light dispersion element and reflector.