Patent ID: 7130499

Claim:
An optical communication module comprising: a plurality of monolithic semiconductor transmitter photonic integrated circuit (TxPIC) chips each having a plurality of optical signal channels approximating wavelengths on a standardized grid, the signal wavelengths of one TxPIC chip being different from wavelength signals from any other TxPIC chip; each of said channels comprising a laser source optically coupled to an electro-optic modulator, the outputs of the electro-optic modulators coupled to inputs of a first optical combiner for combining the inputs to form a combined signal output from the chip; a second optical combiner coupled to receive at its inputs the combined signal outputs from the TxPIC chips to form a combined optical signal group output; a booster optical amplifier coupled to a first output port of the second optical combiner to receive and amplify the combined optical signal group output; the optical combiner having second output port coupled to a wavelength locker for wavelength monitoring and wavelength locking feedback to the laser sources of the monolithic transmitter integrated circuit (TxPIC) chips.