Laser eye safety and fiber receptacle presence detection

Abstract

Provided herein is a novel approach to simultaneous fiber presence detection and improved laser eye safety of an optical transceiver. The subject optical transceiver is fitted with at least one switch in its receptacle that controls the laser diode and indicates the presence of a fiber (or fibers) within such a receptacle. If a fiber is present within the subject module receptacle, the laser switch is permitted to be 'on', whereas the absence of a fiber will prevent the laser switch from turning on, thereby permitting effective control of the laser at a single point of failure within the entire optical transceiver system. The typical optical transceivers of today exhibit limited optical power output due to eye safety limit criteria. With this novel approach, however, a module's output power can be increased to higher level since the only way a person's eye may be exposed to the laser is the removal of the fiber receptacle from the subject module and once the fiber is absent from the module, the laser turns off and/or put optical transceiver into standby mode automatically to save power.