The present invention significantly improves the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in a passive optical array comprising sensors located in rungs between a distribution bus and a return bus. Erbium-doped optical fiber amplifiers are included in the buses proximate to each rung coupling to offset the coupler splitting losses. The gains of the amplifiers are selected to offset losses due to the couplings. The overall SNR can be maintained without significant degradation even for large numbers of sensors. In one aspect of the present invention, the amplifiers are located along the distribution and return buses directly after the couplers, except for the last coupler. In a second aspect, the amplifiers are located directly before each coupler. The optical amplifiers preferably are made of short lengths of erbium-doped fiber spliced into the distribution and return buses. Improvements can be made to the SNR when the distribution bus coupling ratios are set at optimal values. The value of the optimal coupling ratio depends upon the amplifier configuration, the excess loss and other configuration parameters. In preferred embodiments, sensors are grouped into parallel configurations in the rungs between the distribution and return buses to increase the number of sensors without a corresponding increase in the number of amplifiers and with an improvement in system performance. The number of sensors per rung is optimized to provide a low noise figure (NF) or a high SNR for each sensor in the array within a reasonable pump power budget.