Fail-safe fiber-optics data bus using active multimode mirror terminals

A prototype fail-safe optical data bus utilizing active LiTaO(3) electrooptic mirror terminals has been constructed and tested. Features of the system include (1) a single optical source; (2) an optical insertion loss of less than 6 dB and a tapoff ratio of 13 dB for the mirror terminals in the fail-safe mode; (3) compatibility with commercially available LED sources, P-I-N photodiode detectors, and step-index multimode monofibers; (4) remote terminal modulation depth approaching 50% for 100 V applied; and (5) the use of a pulse transformer technique which allows the required electrooptic modulation voltages to be obtained from a 5-V electrical supply. The construction of a working prototype data bus using mirror terminals demonstrates the feasibility of such systems for use in optical communications at the present state of the art.