US Patent 7349592 Optoelectronic circuit board with optical waveguide and optical backplane

An optical transmission device comprises an optical transmission medium and a plurality of optical receivers, and the optical transmission medium has a linear line waveguide. At least one of the optical receivers is adapted to receive a first optical signal propagated through the line waveguide, while at least one of the optical receivers is adapted to receive a second optical signal propagated through the optical transmission medium.