Patent ID: 8160457

Claim:
An improved optical receiver component for use with long transmission distances in a passive optical network (“PON”), comprising: a positive intrinsic negative (“PIN”) photodetector for receiving optical digital signals and converting the digital optical signals to electrical signals; a transimpedance amplifier (“TIA”) section that is connected to the PIN photodetector for processing the electrical signals output from the PIN photodetector to produce at its output a pair of amplified electrical signals representative of digital optical signals input to the PIN photodetector, wherein the TIA section includes (i) an amplifier; and (ii) a voltage regulator coupled to the PIN photodetector, the voltage regulator providing an output to the amplifier to control the amplifier; a first frequency sensitive mirror element interposed between an optical inlet and the PIN photodetector to selectively reflect optical digital signals to the PIN photodetector; an analog photodetector for receiving optical analog signals and converting the analog optical signals to analog electrical signals; a second frequency sensitive mirror element interposed between the optical inlet and the analog photodetector to selectively reflect optical analog signals to the analog photodetector; and a laser diode arranged to output light through the first frequency sensitive mirror element and the second frequency sensitive mirror element and out through the optical inlet responsive to an external digital signal; whereby the combination of the PIN photodetector and the TIA section includes an improved transmission sensitivity at least below −28 dBm.