An integrated optical dynamic channel equalizer that can be employed to equalize
the channel gain level in a WDM transmission line and monitor the optical channel
performance. The device consists of a circulator, a dynamic gain equalizer chip
and a controller. Due to the simplicity of the dynamic gain equalizer chip, which
includes one 1n multiplexer/demultiplexer, an n-channel variable optical
attenuator array (VOA-n), a partially transparent dielectric reflective means and
an n-channel detector array, the device is very compact and can be fabricated at
low cost. By placing a quarter wave plate between the n-channel variable optical
attenuator array and the partially transparent reflective means in the dynamic
channel equalizer chip, the device can be rendered polarization insensitive.
