Peripheral-coupled-waveguide MQW electroabsorption modulator for near transparency and high spurious free dynamic range RF fiber-optic link

Peripheral coupled waveguide (PCW) design has been deployed in InGaAsP multiple quantum-well (MQW) electroabsorption modulator (EAM) at 1.55-/spl mu/m wavelength. PCW enhances the optical saturation power and reduces the optical insertion loss and the equivalent V/sub /spl pi// simultaneously. A radio-frequency link using a 1.3-mm-long lumped-element PCW EAM has achieved experimentally a link gain of -3 dB, at 500 MHz and at input optical power of 80 mW. The corresponding two-tone multioctave spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) at the same bias is measured at 118 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 2/3/. The single-octave SFDR at the third-order null bias is 132 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 4/5/.     

Enhancement of dynamic range in 1.55-/spl mu/m VCSELs using injection locking

Injection locking is demonstrated to improve the analog performance of long wavelength vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. The third-harmonic dynamic range was improved by /spl sim/20 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 2/3/ to be /spl sim/94 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 2/3/, and the modulation bandwidth was increased two fold. The locking conditions are studied and show that the improvement is present over a wide range of injection power and wavelength detuning.     

Sampled-grating DBR laser-based analog optical transmitters

Sampled-grating distributed Bragg grating (SGDBR) laser-based widely tunable optical transmitters are investigated for application in high-performance analog links. More than 45 nm tuning range, 40 dB sidemode suppression ratio, and peak relative intensity noise below -153 dB/Hz is measured. SGDBR lasers integrated with semiconductor optical amplifiers and electroabsorption modulators (EAMs) are characterized with spurious free dynamic range of 125-127 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 4/5/ over the wavelength tuning range. It is also shown how the modulation response of the EAM is affected by the optical power to limit the performance of the analog transmitter.     

Enhanced linear dynamic range of asymmetric Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot modulator/detector

An InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well asymmetric Fabry-Pe/spl acute/rot modulator/detector has been developed for radio-over-fiber systems. The measured bandwidth is more than 6 GHz and the total insertion loss is 7.1 dB. The property of nonlinearity and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) has been studied theoretically. By optimizing the operation optical wavelength and bias voltage based on the numerical simulation, fifth-order nonlinearity dominates the intermodulation distortion and an SFDR of 101 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 4/5/ has been achieved experimentally.     

A 12-bit 320-MSample/s current-steering CMOS D/A converter in 0.44 mm/sup 2/

A 12-bit 320-MSample/s current-steering D/A converter in 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS is presented. In order to achieve high linearity and spurious free dynamic range (SFDR), a large degree of segmentation has been used, with the seven most significant bits (MSBs) being implemented as equally weighted current sources. A "design-for-layout" approach has allowed this to be done in an area of just 0.44 mm/sup 2/. The increased switching noise associated with a high degree of segmentation has been reduced by a new latch architecture. Differential nonlinearity of /spl plusmn/0.3 LSB and integral nonlinearity of /spl plusmn/0.4 LSB have been measured. Low-frequency SFDR of 95 dB has been achieved, while SFDR at 320 MS/s remains above 70 and 60 dB for input frequencies up to 10 and 60 MHz, respectively. The converter consumes a total of 82 mW from 1.8-V and 3.3-V supplies. The validity of the techniques used has been demonstrated by fabricating the converter in two separate 0.18-/spl mu/m processes with similar results measured for both.     

Widely tunable wavelength converter using a double-ring fiber laser with a semiconductor optical amplifier

Widely tunable wavelength conversion has been demonstrated using broad-band orthogonal-pump four-wave mixing in a semiconductor optical amplifier placed at the intersection of two fiber ring lasers. The all-optical wavelength converter operates without using any external pump source. A 3-dB conversion-range over 40 nm is obtained. The measured power penalty is 1.5 dB for a 2.5-Gb/s converted signal at 10/sup -9/ bit error rate.     

Analog characterization of low-voltage MQW traveling-wave electroabsorption modulators

In this paper, high-speed traveling-wave electroabsorption modulators (TW-EAMs) with strain-compensated InGaAsP multiple quantum wells as the absorption region for analog optical links have been developed. A record-high slope efficiency of 4/V, which is equivalent to a Mach-Zehnder modulator with a V/sub /spl pi// of 0.37 V and a high extinction ratio of > 30 dB/V have been measured. A detailed study of the nonlinearity and the spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is presented. By optimizing the bias voltage and the input optical power, the SFDR can be improved by 10-30 dB. After minimizing the third-order distortion, an SFDR as high as 128 dB-Hz/sup 4/5/ is achieved at 10 GHz. A simple link measurement was made using this EAM and an erbium-doped fiber amplifier and a 50-/spl Omega/ terminated photodetector. At 10 GHz, a link gain of 1 dB is achieved at a detected photocurrent of 7.6 mA with higher gains at lower frequencies. The dependence of link gains on bias voltage, input optical, and radio frequency powers are investigated in detail.     

Germania-based core optical fibers

Germania-glass-based core silica glass cladding single-mode fibers (/spl Delta/n up to 0.143) with a minimum loss of 20 dB/km at 1.9 /spl mu/m were fabricated by the modified chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) method. The fibers exhibit strong photorefractivity with the type-IIa-induced refractive-index modulation of 2/spl times/10/sup -3/. The Raman gain of 300 to 59 dB/(km/spl middot/W) was determined at 1.07 to 1.6 /spl mu/m, respectively, in a 75 mol.% GeO/sub 2/ core fiber. Only 3 m of such fibers are enough for the creation of a 10-W Raman laser at 1.12 /spl mu/m with a 13-W pump at 1.07 /spl mu/m. Raman generation in optical fiber at a wavelength of 2.2 /spl mu/m was obtained for the first time.     

Enhanced linear dynamic range property of Franz-Keldysh effectwaveguide modulator

The spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of an InGaAsP-InP Franz-Keldysh effect (FKE) waveguide modulator is studied. Low-biasing the FKE modulator is shown to enhance the SFDR by 22 dB with a 3-dB optical power penalty. Polarization-independent RF operation is also obtained with low bias. At 2 mA photocurrent, the simulated narrowband and broadband SFDR are, respectively, 127 dB and 104 dB in a 1-Hz bandwidth. The measured result projects a narrowband SFDR of 129 dB-Hz ^4/5 at this photocurrent     

A 64-MHz clock-rate /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ ADC with 88-dB SNDR and -105-dB IM3 distortion at a 1.5-MHz signal frequency

A 64-MHz clock rate sigma-delta (/spl Sigma//spl Delta/) analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with -105-dB intermodulation distortion (IMD) at a 1.5-MHz signal frequency is reported. A linear replica bridge sampling network enables the ADC to achieve high linearity for high signal frequencies. Operating at an oversampling ratio of 29, a 2-1-1 cascade with a 2-b quantizer in the last stage reduces the quantization noise level well below that of the thermal noise. The measured signal-to-noise and distortion ratio (SNDR) in 1.1-MHz bandwidth is 88 dB, and the spurious-free-dynamic-range (SFDR) is 106 dB. The modulator and reference buffers occupy a 2.6-mm/sup 2/ die area and have been implemented with thick oxide devices, with minimum channel length of 0.35 /spl mu/m, in a dual-gate 0.18-/spl mu/m 1.8-V single-poly five-metal (SP5M) digital CMOS process. The power consumed by the ADC is 230 mW, including the decimation filters.     

An embedded 0.8 V/480 /spl mu/W 6b/22 MHz flash ADC in 0.13-/spl mu/m digital CMOS process using a nonlinear double interpolation technique

For high-data-rate wireless communication, low-voltage baseband converters integrated with DSP in deep submicrometer processes are area- and power-efficient. Through careful architecture selections and circuit techniques, this paper demonstrates a low-voltage (0.8 V), low-power (480 /spl mu/W), 6-b/22-MHz flash-interpolation ADC which occupies 0.3 mm/sup 2/ and achieves 33 dB SNDR and 47 dB SFDR. The power efficiency of this converter is 0.6 pJ/conv-step which compares favorably with all published results. We also introduce a nonlinear double interpolation technique that enables the use of a 0.13-/spl mu/m standard digital CMOS process without special resistors.     

Wavelength dependent performance of a wavelength converter based oncross-gain modulation and birefringence of a semiconductor opticalamplifier

By exploiting pump-induced birefringence in addition to cross-gain modulation, we have obtained improved extinction ratio and reduced optical power penalties for a wavelength converter using a semiconductor optical amplifier. In the probe beam wavelength range of 1528-1566 nm, while extinction ratios and power penalties of a conventional wavelength converter are found to be 4.5-9.2 dB and -0.5-2.1 dB, those of the proposed converter are 6.6-10 dB and -0.7-1.0 dB, respectively. The proposed converter shows better performance for all wavelengths in the range examined for both extinction ratio and power penalty. Especially, more improvements have been obtained in the longer wavelength     

Theoretical investigation of optical wavelength conversion techniques for DPSK Modulation formats using FWM in SOAs and frequency comb in 10 gb/s transmission systems

We have investigated the wavelength conversion techniques for differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) modulation formats in 10 Gb/s transmission systems, compared with the non-return-to-zero (NRZ) modulation format. For the wavelength conversion of DPSK modulation formats, we employed the wavelength converters based on the four-wave mixing (FWM) in semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and the frequency comb generated by phase modulation. The power penalty at 10/sup -9/ bit error rate was used as a measure of the system performance degraded by the wavelength conversion. Our simulation results show that the DPSK modulation formats have a smaller power penalty than the NRZ modulation format for the wavelength conversion using the FWM effect in an SOA due to a much lower pattern effect. However, as the wavelength conversion uses the frequency comb generated by phase modulation, it has a similar power penalty compared with the NRZ modulation format. It is also shown that the DPSK modulation formats are possible to obtain the power penalty less than 0.4 dB for both wavelength conversion techniques.     

Monolithically integrated 80-gb/s AWG-based all-optical wavelength converter

We present a monolithically integrated all-optical wavelength converter. The converter consists of four semiconductor optical amplifiers for four separate inputs and an arrayed-waveguide grating. Error-free wavelength conversion with reasonable penalties for a 2/sup 7/-1 pseudorandom binary sequence was shown for a single input 80-Gb/s signal. The device exploits cross-gain/phase modulation in a single amplifier and selects with a filter the blue-chirped spectrum of the new wavelength signal in order to speed up the device response. This device has a dimension of 1.7/spl times/3.5 mm/sup 2/ and it can be operated to convert simultaneously four 80-Gb/s wavelength channels.     

RF transmission over multimode fibers using VCSELs-comparing standard and high-bandwidth multimode fibers

Fiber-optic radio-frequency links have been assembled using oxide-confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and multimode fibers. Links with single and multimode VCSELs and with standard and high-bandwidth fibers have been evaluated and compared in the frequency range of 0.1-10 GHz. The best results were obtained for links with a multimode VCSEL and a high-bandwidth fiber. For a 500-m-long link, a spurious free dynamic range of 104 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 2/3/ at 2 GHz and 100 dB/spl middot/Hz/sup 2/3/ at 5 GHz were obtained while allowing for a VCSEL-fiber misalignment of /spl plusmn/12 /spl mu/m. Corresponding numbers for the intrinsic link gain and noise figure are -29 and -33 dB, and 39 and 42 dB at 2 and 5 GHz, respectively. Inferior performance was observed for the standard fiber link due to a larger variation in modal group velocities. This paper also presents a detailed link analysis to identify performance limitations and to suggest modifications for improved performance.     

Cascadability study for optical label swapping using synchronous phase modulation

We experimentally investigate the cascadability of optical label swapping using a synchronous phase modulation technique without wavelength conversion in a recirculating loop to emulate multihop networks. We find that the power penalties for both label and payload are below 1 dB at 10/sup -7/ bit-error rate after five hops. We also show that a system penalty can be maintained below 1 dB for an accumulated timing mismatch of 20% of bit period using synchronous phase modulation-based optical label swapping. The results show the potential to save up to 80% of wavelength converters in optical packet switched networks applications.     

Full characterization of packaged Er-Yb-codoped phosphate glass waveguides

We present a procedure for the characterization of packaged Er-Yb-codoped phosphate glass waveguides. The procedure is based on precise measurements of the output optical powers when the waveguide is diode-laser pumped at 980 nm. The dependence of these optical powers on the input pump power is then fitted to the results from a numerical model that describes in detail the propagation of the optical powers inside the waveguide. The best fit is obtained for the following parameters: the signal wavelength scattering losses are /spl alpha/(1534)=8.3/spl times/10/sup -2/ dB/cm, the Yb/sup 3+/ absorption and emission cross sections (/spl ap/980 nm) are 5.4/spl times/10/sup -25/ m/sup 2/ and 7.0/spl times/10/sup -25/ m/sup 2/, the Er/sup 3+/ absorption and emission cross sections (/spl ap/980 nm) are 1.6/spl times/10/sup -25/ m/sup 2/ and 1.2/spl times/10/sup -25/ m/sup 2/, the Yb/sup 3+/--Er/sup 3+/ energy-transfer coefficient is 1.8/spl times/10/sup -23/ m/sup 3//s and the cooperative-upconversion coefficient is 8/spl times/10/sup -25/ m/sup 3//s. An approximate method is introduced that allows the determination of the absorption and emission cross section distributions for the erbium /sup 4/I/sub 13/2//spl hArr//sup 4/I/sub 15/2/ transition from the amplified spontaneous emission power spectrum.     

Improvement of the input power dynamic range for wavelengthconverters based on cross-gain modulation employing a probe powercontrol loop

A technique for improving the input power dynamic range of wavelength converters based on cross-gain modulation in a semiconductor optical amplifier is presented. By experimentally investigating the effect of pump and probe powers on the operating performance in terms of power penalty for a conventional wavelength converter, we show that the optimal performance depends on the ratio of pump and probe powers coupled into the semiconductor optical amplifier in a certain input power range. Based upon the experimental result, a wavelength converter with a wide dynamic range has been proposed, in which the probe power is automatically adjusted to have the power proportional to the pump power. We show that a dynamic range of >20 dB is achievable for a 2.5 Gbit/s signal at a 2-dB penalty     

Carrier synchronization for 3- and 4-bit-per-symbol optical transmission

We investigate carrier synchronization for coherent detection of optical signals encoding 3 and 4 bits/symbol. We consider the effects of laser phase noise and of additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), which can arise from local oscillator (LO) shot noise or LO-spontaneous beat noise. We identify 8- and 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) schemes that perform well when the receiver phase-locked loop (PLL) tracks the instantaneous signal phase with moderate phase error. We propose implementations of 8- and 16-QAM transmitters using Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulators. We outline a numerical method for computing the bit error rate (BER) of 8- and 16-QAM in the presence of AWGN and phase error. It is found that these schemes can tolerate phase-error standard deviations of 2.48/spl deg/ and 1.24/spl deg/, respectively, for a power penalty of 0.5 dB at a BER of 10/sup -9/. We propose a suitable PLL design and analyze its performance, taking account of laser phase noise, AWGN, and propagation delay within the PLL. Our analysis shows that the phase error depends on the constellation penalty, which is the mean power of constellation symbols times the mean inverse power. We establish a procedure for finding the optimal PLL natural frequency, and determine tolerable laser linewidths and PLL propagation delays. For zero propagation delay, 8- and 16-QAM can tolerate linewidth-to-bit-rate ratios of 1.8/spl times/10/sup -5/ and 1.4/spl times/10/sup -6/, respectively, assuming a total penalty of 1.0 dB.     

A 10-bit 250-MS/s binary-weighted current-steering DAC

This paper studies the impact of segmentation on current-steering digital-to-analog converters (DACs). Segmentation may be used to improve the dynamic behavior of the converter but comes at a cost. A method for reducing the segmentation degree is given. The presented chip, a 10-bit binary-weighted current-steering DAC, has >60 dB SFDR at 250 MS/s from DC to Nyquist. At 62.5 MHz signal frequency and 250 MS/s, we operated the device in 9-bit unary, 1-bit binary-weighted mode. The obtained 60 dB SFDR in this measurement demonstrates that the binary nature of the converter did not limit the SFDR. The chip draws 4 mW from a dual 1.5 V/1.8 V supply plus load currents. The active area is less than 0.35 mm/sup 2/ in a standard 1P-5M 0.18-/spl mu/m 1.8-V CMOS process. Both INL and DNL are below 0.1 LSB.