Patent 7529435 was granted and assigned to Applied Materials on May, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An optical signal distribution network including a semiconductor substrate including a waveguide formed therein to carry an optical signal; and a plurality of detectors within the waveguide and serially arranged along its length, each of the detectors being capable of detecting the optical signal passing through it and sufficiently transparent to the optical signal to enable the optical signal to reach and be detected by all of the plurality of detectors.