Patent ID: 7536067

Claim:
A method for verifying optical functionality of an optical transmitter in a PIC device which comprises a plurality of optical transmitters, a plurality of optical receivers, and an optical interconnect mesh which is structured to enable at least one of the following network architectures: a star network architecture; a bus/broadcast network architecture; and a ring network architecture, and comprises a reflecting optical element, and a bi-directional coupler comprising a plurality of ports on a first side which comprise ports that are operatively associated with the optical transmitters and ports that are operatively associated with the optical receivers, and at least one port on a second side which is operatively associated with the reflecting optical element, the method comprising: assigning each of the plurality of optical transmitters an individual optical signal for optical functionality verification; transmitting the optical signal which is individually assigned to the optical transmitter by the optical transmitter towards the reflecting optical element via a port on the first side and the at least one port on the second side, wherein the reflecting optical element reflects the individually assigned optical signal back to the at least one port on the second side, and the bi-directional coupler distributes the individually assigned optical signal received thereat from the reflecting optical element among all the optical receivers; and determining whether the individually assigned optical signal is correctly received at at least one of the plurality of optical receivers.