Patent ID: 7583900

Claim:
An optical transceiver for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber comprising: a housing including an electrical connector for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting and/or receiving an information-containing electrical communications signal, a fiber optic connector adapted for coupling with an external optical fiber for transmitting and/or receiving an optical communications signal, and a base member and a cover member forming a pluggable module; a transmitter subassembly disposed in the housing including (i) first and second lasers operating at different wavelengths and modulated with respective first and second electrical signals for emitting first and second laser light beams; (ii) a multiplexer for receiving said first and second beams and multiplexing the respective optical signals into a single multi-wavelength beam that is coupled to said fiber optic connector for transmitting the optical signal to an external optical fiber; and (iii) a first electrical interconnect; a receiver subassembly disposed in the housing including an optical demultiplexer coupled to said fiber optic connector for receiving a multi-wavelength optical signal having a plurality of information-containing signals each with a different predetermined wavelength and demultiplexing the optical signal into distinct optical beams corresponding to said predetermined wavelengths; a plurality of photodiodes each of which is disposed on a support in the path of a distinct optical beam, the photodiodes functioning to convert the respective optical signals into an electrical signal; and a second electrical interconnect for transmitting the electrical signal; and a communications protocol processing subassembly disposed in the housing for processing the communications signal into a predetermined electrical or optical communications protocol supporting at least a 10 Gigabit data rate, including a third interconnect connected to the first interconnect of the transmitter subassembly and a fourth interconnect connected to the second interconnect of the receiver subassembly.