Patent ID: 7400664

Claim:
A laser array device comprising: a transmitting unit having a plurality of lasers outputting laser beams carrying transmission data which are sent to an external device; a receiving unit having a plurality of optical detectors which directly detect laser beams carrying data which are received from an external device located directly above said optical detectors; and a control unit having a plurality of laser control circuits which respectively drive the lasers of the transmitting unit in accordance with the transmission data, wherein the plurality of lasers and the plurality of optical detectors are formed adjacent to each other into a plurality of unit modules, each of the plurality of unit modules consisting of one of the lasers of the transmitting unit, one of the optical detectors of the receiving unit, which adjoin to each other, and one of the laser control circuits of the control unit, and wherein each unit module includes intermediate core opening formed in an overlaying clad to interconnect a transparent core opening formed above one of the lasers within the unit module and a transparent core opening formed above one of the optical detectors within the unit module, allowing a horizontally reflected laser beam from said one of the lasers to pass through said intermediate core opening to said one of the optical detectors.