Patent 7466928 was granted and assigned to Sumitomo Electric Industries on December, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The present invention provides an optical receiver applicable to various transmission rates. The optical receiver of the invention includes a main amplifier and a switching unit. The main amplifier amplifies a voltage signal output from the preamplifier, which converts the photocurrent to the voltage signal. The switching unit is inserted between the preamplifier and the main amplifier to vary the input impedance RIN of the main amplifier depending on the transmission rate.