Optical devices refer to optoelectronic devices with various functions made by using the photoelectric conversion effect in the field of optical communication, which are the main components of optical modules.
According to whether external energy is required to drive photoelectric conversion during operation, optical devices are divided into active devices and passive devices; the former is an optical communication system that requires external energy to drive work and can convert electrical signals into optical signals or convert optical signals. Converting into electrical signals is the heart of the optical transmission system; the latter is an optoelectronic device that does not require external energy to drive work, which mainly includes optical fiber connectors, optical fiber couplers, wavelength division multiplexers, optical attenuators, and optical isolators, etc. are the joints of the optical transmission system.
Among active devices, a device that converts an electrical signal into an optical signal is called a light source, and a device that converts an optical signal into an electrical signal is called a photodetector. Among them, the light source devices mainly include a semiconductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) and laser diodes (LDs), and the light detectors mainly include photodiodes (PINs) and avalanche photodiodes (APDs).
According to functional classification, optical devices can be divided into transmitting and receiving devices, wavelength division multiplexing devices, gain amplifier devices, switching devices, and system management devices. Among them, the transmitting and receiving device was separated into two independent components in the early days - the optical transmitting component (TOSA) and the optical receiving component (ROSA), until later with the development of miniaturization, the two were combined into one. Functional "Light Transmitter Receiver Assembly" (BOSA).
Specifically, optical devices are subdivided into many categories, with about 9,000 different types.
