Patent ID: 8714834

Claim:
An optical data coupler, comprising: a first optical coupler component having a housing with an interface surface that contains at least one transmit optical coupler element and at least one receive optical coupler element affixed thereto; a second optical coupler component having a housing with an interface surface that contains at least one transmit optical coupler element and at least one receive optical coupler element affixed thereto; a first optical coupler alignment mechanism on the housing of said first optical coupler component and a second optical coupler alignment mechanism on the housing of said second optical coupler component; and an optical amplifier in each of the first and second optical coupler components, said optical amplifier coupled to each of the optical coupler elements in the respective first and second optical coupler components within which said optical amplifier is affixed, wherein the first and second optical coupler alignment mechanisms are such that upon engagement of the first optical coupler alignment mechanism with the second optical coupler alignment mechanism a transmit optical coupler element of the first optical coupler component is optically aligned with a receive optical coupler element of the second optical coupler component and a transmit optical coupler element of the second optical coupler component is optically aligned with a receive optical coupler element of the first optical coupler component.