一种光接收机中的高增益宽动态范围跨阻放大器

As the front-end preamplifiers in optical receivers, transimpedance amplifiers （TIAs） are commonly required to have a high gain and low input noise to amplify the weak and susceptible input signal. At the same time, the TIAs should possess a wide dynamic range （DR） to prevent the circuit from becoming saturated by high input currents. Based on the above, this paper presents a CMOS transimpedance amplifier with high gain and a wide DR for 2.5 Gbit/s communications. The TIA proposed consists of a three-stage cascade pull push inverter, an automatic gain control circuit, and a shunt transistor controlled by the resistive divider. The inductive-series peaking technique is used to further extend the bandwidth. The TIA proposed displays a maximum transimpedance gain of 88.3 dBΩ with the -3 dB bandwidth of 1.8 GHz, exhibits an input current dynamic range from 100 nA to 10 mA. The output voltage noise is less than 48.23 nV/√Hz within the -3 dB bandwidth. The circuit is fabricated using an SMIC 0.18 μm 1P6M RFCMOS process and dissipates a dc power of 9.4 mW with 1.8 V supply voltage.     

一款调制器和过采样率可配置的单芯片1.2V 95-55dB动态范围的Delta-Sigma模数转换器设计

A single die 1.2 V multi-stage noise shaping（Mash） 2-2 delta sigma analog to digital converter（ADC）for wide applications is implemented. The configurable Mash 2-2 modulator with a new decimation filter design is presented to achieve wide and high dynamic range（DR） for multiple practical applications. The novel modulator can be configured as a Mash 2-2 modulator for high precision or a 2-order modulator for low DR. The decimation filter is designed to select the OSR flexibly among cascaded integrator comb（CIC） filter and two half-band filters（HBF）. The serial peripheral interface（SPI） can be used to adjust the sampling frequency and the oversampling ratio（OSR）. The design was fabricated in a 0.13 m CMOS process with an area of 0.91 mm2and a total power of 5.2 mW. The measurement results show that the dynamic range（DR） of the proposed ADC can change from 55to 95 dB with the configurable OSR from 16 to 256. The spurious free dynamic range（SFDR） and signal-to-noise distortion ratio（SNDR） can get 99 dB and 86.5 dB, respectively.     

A 1.2-V, 84-dB Σ△ ADM in 0.18-μm digital CMOS technology

A low power and low voltage∑△analog-to-digital modulator is realized with digital CMOS technology, which is due to full compensated depletion mode capacitors.Compared with mixed signal technology,this type of modulator is more compatible for pure digital applications.A pseudo-two-stage class-AB OTA is used in switchedcapacitor integrators for low voltage and low power.The modulator is realized in standard SMIC 0.18μm 1P6M digital CMOS technology.Measured results show that with 1.2 V supply voltage and a 6 MHz sample clock,the dynamic range of the modulator is 84 dB and the total power dissipation is 2460μW.     

An Electroabsorption Modulator Monolithically Integrated with a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier and a Dual-Waveguide Spot-Size Converter

A semiconductor optical amplifier and electroabsorption modulator monolithically integrated with a spot-size converter input and output is fabricated by means of selective area growth,quantum well intermixing,and asymmetric twin waveguide technology.A 1550～1600nm lossless operation with a high DC extinction ratio of 25dB and more than 10GHz 3dB bandwidth are successfully achieved.The output beam divergence angles of the device in the horizontal and vertical directions are as small as 7.3°×18.0°,respectively,resulting in a 3.0dB coupling loss with a cleaved single-mode optical fiber.     

Message from the Guest Editor for the Special Issue

The communications industry and research have been developed greatly since optical fiber communications technologies became practical. More than 80 percent of the traffic of today＇s communications network, which increases at the speed more than Moore＇s law attributed to the rapidly growing network users and services, is carried by optical fiber networks. Optical fiber communications networks will play an essential role in the development of information society in the future for its large capacity, high bit rate, low energy consumption and low cost. Moreover, the business Terabit/s transsport systems and Petabit/s switching nodes must be implemented by optical communications technologies. In a word, optical fiber communications technologies will be the key part of next generation network in China.     

Optical properties of Zn-diffused InP layers for the planar-type InGaAs/InP photodetectors

Zn diffusion into InP was carried out ex-situ using a new Zn diffusion technique with zinc phosphorus particles placed around InP materials as zinc source in a semi-closed chamber formed by a modified diffusion furnace.The optical characteristics of the Zn-diffused InP layer for the planar-type InGaAs/InP PIN photodetectors grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) has been investigated by photoluminescence (PL) measurements.The temperature-dependent PL spectrum of Zn-diffused InP samples at different diffusion temperatures showed that band-to-acceptor transition dominates the PL emission,which indicates that Zn was commendably diffused into InP layer as the acceptor.High quality Zn-diffused InP layer with typically smooth surface was obtained at 580 ℃ for 10 min.Furthermore,more interstitial Zn atoms were activated to act as acceptors after a rapid annealing process.Based on the above Zn-diffusion technique,a 50μm planar-type InGaAs/InP PIN photodector device was fabricated and exhibited a low dark current of 7.73 pA under a reverse bias potential of-5 V and a high breakdown voltage of larger than 41 V (I ＜ 10 μA).In addition,a high responsivity of 0.81 A/W at 1.31 μm and 0.97 A/W at 1.55 μm was obtained in the developed PIN photodetector.     

Detection of dynamic strain using an SOA-fiber ring laser and an arrayed waveguide grating demodulator

In this letter, a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) dynamic strain sensing system using a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-fiber ring laser (FRL) and an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) demodulator is proposed. Due to the characteristics of SOA, it can act as the gain medium as well as light source. The AWG module is used as the wavelength demodulator. It is shown that SOA-based FRL sensors can accurately respond to 1.5 με dynamic strain signal with high frequency up to 120 kHz and almost no distortion in the waveforms. Experimental results show that the system can be used for acoustic testing, such as underwater ultrasonic detection and external impact monitoring. In addition, the simultaneous dual-channel demodulated system is investigated in detail to verify the multiplexing. This dynamic strain sensing system can be widely utilized in structural health monitoring because of its high stability, low cost and good multiplexability.     

Measurement of Frequency Shift Characteristics Based on LiNbO_3 Waveguide Electro-Optic Intensity Modulator

High-speed and wide-band LiNbO3 waveguide electro-optic intensity modulator has drawn great attention in the field of optical fiber communication and sensor. This paper reports the research results on the measurement of frequency shift characteristics of Mach-Zehnder electro-optic intensity modulator. Two measurement methods of frequency shift characteristics for high and low frequency modulations are studied in theory and experiment and demonstrate different results. The realization of a multi-wavelength optical source based on Mach-Zehnder electro-optic intensity modulator has been introduced. The technique to reach the maximum intensity for interesting shift frequency, particularly for heterodyne detection of Brillouin distributed optical fiber sensing, has been given.     

Simulation design of thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with bimetallic layer electrodes

Thin-film lithium niobate electro-optical modulator will become the key device in the future optical communication, which has the advantages of high modulation rate, low half-wave voltage, large bandwidth, and easy integration compared with conventional bulk lithium niobate modulator. However, because the electrode gap of the lithium niobate film modulator is very narrow, when the microwave frequency gets higher, it leads to higher microwave loss, and the electro-optical performance of the modulator will be greatly reduced. Here, we propose a thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with a bimetallic layer electrode structure to achieve microwave loss less than 8 dB/cm in the range of 200 GHz, exhibiting a voltage-length product of 1.1 V∙cm and a 3 dB electro-optic bandwidth greater than 160 GHz. High-speed data transmission test has been performed, showing good performance.     

A 3.1-4.8 GHz transmitter with a high frequency divider in 0.18μm CMOS for OFDM-UWB

A fully integrated low power RF transmitter for a WiMedia 3.1-4.8 GHz multiband orthogonal frequency division multiplexing ultra-wideband system is presented. With a separate transconductance stage, the quadrature up-conversion modulator achieves high linearity with low supply voltage. The co-design of different resonant frequencies of the modulator and the differential to single （D2S） converter ensures in-band gain flatness. By means of a series inductor peaking technique, the D2S converter obtains 9 dB more gain without extra power consumption. A divided-by-2 divider is used for carrier signal generation. The measurement results show an output power between -10.7 and -3.1 dBm with 7.6 dB control range, an OIP3 up to 12 dBm, a sideband rejection of 35 dBc and a carrier rejection of 30 dBc. The ESD protected chip is fabricated in the Jazz 0.18μm RF CMOS process with an area of 1.74 mm^2 and only consumes 32 mA current （at 1.8 V） including the test associated parts.     

Low-drive-voltage MQW electroabsorption modulator for opticalshort-pulse generation

This paper reports on InGaAsP-InGaAsP tensile strained MQW electroabsorption (EA) modulators with a high modulation efficiency of 35 GHz/V that generate optical short pulses. We studied and optimized the multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structural parameters, barrier height, and well number, thickness, and strain in the absorption layer to ensure high attenuation efficiency and generate low duty cycle pulses. Low TE/TM polarization sensitivity was obtained by controlling strain. Stable, nearly transform-limited optical pulse trains with a narrow pulsewidth of 3.6 ps are generated by applying a 20-GHz sinusoidal modulation voltage (6 V_pp) to the EA modulator. This achieves a very small pulse duty cycle of 7.2%     

Polarization and wavelength insensitive MQW electroabsorption optical gates for WDM switching systems

We propose using MQW electroabsorption (EA) modulators as optical gates in wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) switching systems. A fabricated MQW-EA gate with integrated waveguides showed a high extinction ratio (>30 dB), a low polarization-dependent loss (0.3 dB), and a low wavelength-dependent loss (1.1 dB) within the gain band (1545-1560 nm) of erbium doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). Ultra-high-speed (<40 ps) switching of a WDM signal was demonstrated.     

High-speed InGaAlAs/InAlAs multiple quantum well electrooptic phasemodulators with bandwidth in excess of 20 GHz

High-speed phase modulation (in the frequency bandwidth of 20 GHz, the highest yet reported for multiple quantum well (MQW) phase modulators) for waveguided InGaAlAs/InAlAs MQW optical modulators is reported. The modulator successfully operates at a long wavelength of 1-55 μm with a low required voltage for phase shift (Vπ=3.8 V), small intensity modulation depth below 1.5 dB, and without any modulation bandwidth degradation up to 20 GHz under high input optical power of 0 dBm in single-mode fiber     

基于级联马赫-曾德尔调制器的太赫兹通信系统

为了有效解决太赫兹通信系统中信号难以调制,影响通信系统性能的问题,提出了一种基于级联马赫-曾德尔调制器的太赫兹通信系统。将要传递的伪随机不归零码与频率为10GHz的射频本振信号混频后调制到级联马赫-曾德尔调制器上,通过调节两个调制器的偏置电压,使其分别偏置在最大传输点和最小传输点上,得到的光载波信号经过光放大器放大,结合高非线性光纤的四波混频效应,利用相移布喇格光栅进行模式选择,经过光电转换后的太赫兹信号通过基带数据恢复,可以得出该太赫兹通信系统传输的误比特率。结果表明,基于级联马赫-曾德尔调制器结构可以将太赫兹信号的产生与调制结合到一起。该研究对太赫兹通信系统的实用化有一定借鉴意义。     

A lithium niobate light modulator for fiber optical communications

An electrooptic intensity modulator using lithium niobate has been developed for applications in binary fiber optical digital communications at the wavelength of 1.06 µm. We have shown that many shortcomings generally associated with electro-optic modulators can be surmounted. The modulator was driven by a compact transistor amplifier, temperature dependence of the static birefringence was minimized, and the optical bias was made adjustable by a dc voltage superposed on the signal. The modulator has been operated at 70-Mb/s pulse rate and 100-percent modulation, its extinction ratio is better than 40 to 1 and the optical insertion loss is about 1 dB.     

40-gb/s EA modulators with wide temperature operation and negative chirp

Broad bandwidth external modulators are widely used in optical fiber networks to avoid the chirp associated with the direct modulation of laser diode sources. For transmission application beyond 10 Gb/s, electroabsorption modulators (EAMs) offer many advantages such as low drive voltage, low chirp characteristics, small size, and added functionality through integration with a distributed feedback laser. In this letter, we present static and dynamic characterization of an EAM demonstrating the possibility to have with the same device uncooled operation at 40 Gb/s and negative chirp at low negative bias. These features are attractive for cost reduction in short link applications and for long-haul transmission. All the measurements are performed at 40 Gb/s from room temperature up to 60/spl deg/C demonstrating a negative chirp behavior for the stand-alone modulator over the entire temperature range.     

Polymer‐Based Devices for Optical Communications

Polymers are emerging as new alternative materials for optical communication devices. We developed two types of polymer‐based devices for optical communications. One type is for ultra high‐speed signal processing that uses nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers in such devices as electro ‐optic (EO) Mach‐Zëhnder (MZ) modulators and EO 2×2 switches. The other is for WDM optical communications that use low‐loss optical polymers in such devices as 1×2, 2×2, 4‐arrayed 2×2 digital optical switches (DOSs) and 16×16 arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) routers. For these devices, we synthesized a polyetherimide‐disperse red 1 (PEI‐DR1) side chain NLO polymer and a low‐loss optical polymer known as fluorinated polyaryleneethers (FPAE). This paper presents the details of our development of these polymeric photonic devices considering all aspects from materials to packaging.     

Ultra-high-speed multiple-quantum-well electro-absorption opticalmodulators with integrated waveguides

Integrating the input and output waveguides with a multiple-quantum-well (MQW) electro-absorption (EA) optical modulator is shown to achieve ultra-high-speed modulation while keeping the total device length long enough for easy fabrication and packaging. Testing with fabricated modulators showed that a shorter modulation region results in a larger modulation bandwidth. The additional loss due to the waveguide integration was less than 1 dB. An optimized modulator showed a large modulation bandwidth of 50 GHz, a low driving voltage of less than 3 V, and a low insertion loss of 8 dB. A prototype module of this modulator had a bandwidth of greater than 40 GHz. Optimizing the MQW structure makes the modulator insensitive to polarization. These results demonstrate that MQW-EA modulators with integrated waveguides are advantageous in terms of fabrication, packaging, and ultra-high-speed modulation     

High-speed bulk InGaAsP-InP electroabsorption modulators withbandwidth in excess of 20 GHz

Bulk InGaAsP-InP electroabsorption optical modulators with high extinction ratio, low drive voltage, and high modulation bandwidth at λ=1.3 μm are reported. The devices have a tapered-fiber-to-modulator-to-tapered-fiber extinction ratio greater than 20 dB at a drive voltage of <5 V. Very low capacitance modulators (<0.2 pF) were fabricated using SiO₂ bonding pad isolation, resulting in a measured electrical modulation bandwidth in excess of 20 GHz     

A novel method for designing chirp characteristics inelectroabsorption MQW optical modulators

We propose a novel method to control the chirp parameter characteristics in electroabsorption (EA) multiquantum-well (MQW) optical modulators. We demonstrate that a large decrease of absorption on the short wavelength side enables us to achieve a negative chirp parameter that is independent of the extinction characteristics. This is achieved by enhancing the decrease in the absorption by higher states, which can be brought about by a shallow heavy-hole band discontinuity. It is also experimentally shown that a negative chirp operation from a near-zero-bias voltage in GaInAsP MQW optical modulators is realized by applying this new concept