Patent ID: 7974502

Claim:
An optical module comprising: a silica-based 3-dimensional optical waveguide circuit; a plurality of driving electronic devices for controlling the driving of optical switch units having heater elements to modify an optical output characteristic of said optical waveguide circuit by causing a refractive index variation of said waveguide circuit by using a thermal-optic effect; and analog adjustable driving power supply circuits for supplying current to said heater elements; wherein said driving electronic devices are mounted on a same silica-based substrate of said optical waveguide circuit together with said optical waveguide circuit, wherein said optical switch units are divided into separate multiple groups, one or more of the groups having a plurality of the optical switch units, each optical switch unit having at least two heater elements, wherein each analog adjustable driving power supply circuit is electrically connected to all of the optical switch units within a corresponding group, each one of said analog adjustable driving power supply circuits being electrically connected by a corresponding single shared common power supply line to all of the optical switch units of the corresponding group so as to supply current to the heater elements thereof, wherein wiring from said driving electronic devices is integrated on the silica-based substrate of said optical waveguide circuit in the form of a bare chip, and wherein said driving electronic devices are provided for every said corresponding group of said optical switch units and integrated on the silica-based substrate of said optical waveguide circuit.