Patent ID: 7499653

Claim:
A multi-wavelength photonic oscillator comprising: (a) a plurality of lasers each emitting light at a different frequency; (b) an optical wavelength multiplexer for combining the light emitted by the plurality of lasers at an output thereof as a set of optical wavelengths; and (c) an optical modulator arranged in a feedback loop and coupled to receive light at the output of the optical wavelength multiplexer, the feedback loop having a loop gain greater than unity and including: (i) an optical tap for coupling at least a subset of said set of optical wavelengths to at least one optical output of said multi-wavelength photonic oscillator; (ii) at least one optical channel having an associated photodetector arranged to receive light from the optical tap via the at least one optical channel; and (iii) an electronic loop portion coupled to receive output from the at least one associated photodetector and to provide an input for the optical modulator.