Patent ID: 8526771

Claim:
An optical interconnect, comprising: a plurality of splitters, wherein each splitter includes a plurality of in-plane optical waveguides including a source waveguide, a reflection waveguide, and an output waveguide; a single partially-reflective mirror element disposed in-plane within each of the plurality of splitters and common to each of the plurality of splitters, the partially-reflective mirror element having a reflective surface and an opposite surface; wherein the source waveguide and the reflection waveguide of each of the plurality of splitters are optically coupled to the partially reflective surface such that for each of the plurality of splitters a photonic signal from the source waveguide is partially reflected off the reflective coating as a reflected signal into the reflection waveguide; wherein the output waveguide of each of the plurality of splitters is optically coupled to the opposite surface such that for each of the plurality of splitters a non-reflected portion of the photonic signal propagates into the output waveguide; and wherein the reflective surface includes a reflecting surface area interfacing with the photonic signal from each of the source waveguides, and power of the non-reflected portion is a function of the reflecting surface area interfacing with source waveguide.