Patent ID: 8260136

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a polarization beam splitter having an input waveguide and first and second output waveguides, the polarization beam splitter being configured to receive, at the input waveguide, a first optical signal having a first polarization and a second optical signal having a second polarization different than the first polarization; a first polarizer configured to pass light having the first polarization, the first polarizer being configured to receive the first optical signal from the first output of the polarization beam splitter; a rotator configured to receive the first optical signal from the first polarizer, the rotator being configured to output the first optical signal so that the first optical signal has the second polarization; a second polarizer configured to pass light having the second polarization, the second polarizer being configured to receive the first optical signals having the second polarization; a third polarizer configured pass the light having the second polarization, the third polarizer configured to receive the second optical signal having the second polarization, the first optical signal is one of a plurality of first optical signals and the second optical signal is one of a plurality of second optical signals, each of the plurality of first optical signals having a corresponding one of a plurality of wavelengths, and each of the plurality of second optical signals having a corresponding one of the plurality of wavelengths, each of the plurality of first optical signals is output, with the second polarization, from the second polarizer and each of the plurality of second optical signals is output, with the second polarization, from the third polarizer; and optical demultiplexer circuitry, the optical demultiplexer circuitry having first and second inputs, the first input of the optical demultiplexer circuitry being configured to receive the plurality of first optical signals from the second polarizer and the second input of the optical demultiplexer circuitry is configured to receive the plurality of second optical signals from the third polarizer.