Patent ID: 7333731

Claim:
An apparatus comprising: an optoelectronic thyristor device formed within a resonant cavity on a substrate, said optoelectronic thyristor device including an anode terminal, injector control terminals coupled to corresponding complementary-type first and second modulation doped quantum well interfaces, and a cathode terminal; and circuit means including first circuitry and second circuitry, said first circuitry operably coupled to said injector control terminals for injecting charge into and removing charge from each of said first and second modulation doped quantum well interfaces of said optoelectronic thyristor device, and said second circuitry operably coupled to said optoelectronic thyristor device for supplying varying bias current between said anode terminal and said cathode terminal of said optoelectronic thyristor device; wherein said circuit means dynamically switches said optoelectronic thyristor device between a transmit mode configuration and a receive mode configuration, wherein in the transmit mode configuration, said optoelectronic thyristor device is modulated between a non-lasing state and a lasing state in accordance with an input digital electrical signal, to thereby produce an output digital optical data signal that corresponds to the input digital electrical signal that is emitted from said resonant cavity for transmission, and wherein in the receive mode configuration, said optoelectronic thyristor device is modulated between a non-lasing OFF state and a non-lasing ON state in accordance with an input digital optical signal that is injected into said resonant cavity, to thereby produce an output digital electrical data signal that corresponds to the input digital optical signal.