This paper describes a modular electro-optic bus coupler system that allows electrical and optical coupling of devices for both electrical and optical bus-to-bus transmissions. The coupler permits the modular addition of any number of optical terminals without changing the electrical design in any way. The electronics associated with the modular coupler are transparent to any protocol or data format associated with the bus. At the heart of the module is a unique optical receiver design which transforms optical signals to logic level electrical signals, independent of any two-level data format or the time between optical signal level transitions.
