Patent ID: 7363018

Claim:
A device for transmitting a data signal along a path in a circuit, comprising: an interconnect comprising at least one electrically conductive path and having a transmit end and a receive end; a first phototransducer and a second phototransducer each adapted to generate an electrical signal in response to an incident optical signal; a first mixer having a first input terminal in electrical communication with the first phototransducer, a second input terminal to receive the data signal, and an upconvert output terminal in electrical communication with the transmit end of the interconnect, the first mixer providing an upconverted data signal at the upconvert output terminal in response to the data signal and a local oscillator signal emitted from an external optical source and incident on the first phototransducer; a second mixer having a first input terminal in electrical communication with the second phototransducer, a second input terminal in electrical communication with the receive end of the interconnect, and a downconvert output terminal, the second mixer providing the data signal at the downconvert output terminal in response to the upconverted data signal and the optical local oscillator signal emitted from the external optical source and incident on the second phototransducer.