Scalable WDM access network architecture based on photonic slotrouting

This paper introduces an approach to solving the fundamental scalability problem of all-optical packet switching wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) access networks. Current optical networks cannot be scaled by simply adding nodes to existing systems due to the accumulation of insertion losses and/or the limited number of wavelengths. Scalability through bridging requires, on the other hand, the capability to switch packets among adjacent subnetworks on a wavelength basis. Such a solution is, however, not possible due to the unavailability of fast-switching wavelength sensitive devices. In this paper, we propose a scalable WDM access network architecture based on a recently proposed optical switching approach, termed photonic slot routing. According to this approach, entire slots, each carrying multiple packets (one on each wavelength) are “transparently” routed through the network as single units so that wavelength sensitive data flows can be handled using fast-switching wavelength nonsensitive devices based on proven technologies. The paper shows that the photonic slot routing technique can be successfully used to achieve statistical multiplexing of the optical bandwidth in the access network, thus providing a cost-effective solution to today's increasing bandwidth demand for data transmissions     

可调谐氮化硅波导微环谐振腔滤波器研究

设计并制备了一种基于热光效应的集成可调谐氮化 硅(Si₃N₄)波导微环谐振腔滤波器,通过采用马赫-曾德干涉仪(MZI)构成的可调谐 耦合器控制耦合区耦合比,以实现滤波器消光比的调谐。设计并优化了微环谐振 腔的波导截面尺寸、弯曲半径和耦合区波导间隔等参数,并通过光刻、反应离子刻蚀(RIE )等工艺制备 了两种不同弯曲半径的Si₃N₄波导微环谐振腔。实验结果表明,本文器件在波长1550nm附近处的自由光谱 范围(FSR)为68pm,3dB带宽约为16pm,品质因子Q达到了9.68×10 4,消光比可调范围约为17dB。     

硅基槽型微环谐振器及其调谐特性研究

仿真和实验研究了含槽型(slot)光波导的反馈波导型微环谐振器的特性,将槽型光波导集成到Si基微环谐振器中,丰富Si基光波导的功能,为新型光电子器件的实现提供途径。通过锥形波导结构实现从传统波导到槽型波导的模式转换,减小传输损耗,采用时域有限差分法(FDTD)研究了光功率的分布和模式转换过程。结果显示,光功率逐渐转移到锥形结构两侧的槽型波导中并最终形成槽型波导中的传输模式,通过优化锥形结构能实现较高的模式转换效率,可以达到90%以上。采用电子束刻写技术和等离子刻蚀技术制备了反馈波导型槽型微环谐振器。实验显示,锥形波导能够实现模式的转换,光传输过程良好。通过在槽型波导中填充电光聚合物来改变槽型光波导的折射率,测量结果显示,传输谱谐振峰发生了明显移动,移动幅度达到5.6nm,器件具备很好的可调谐性。     

基于微环谐振器的超紧凑微波光子滤波器的设计

设计了一个基于硅基微环的超紧凑的微波光子滤波器,用以提高硅基微波光子器件的集成密度及增大其自由光谱范围。根据波导光学的耦合模理论,推导出双环并联谐振器的光强传递函数,并通过仿真得到了微波光子滤波器的输出特性。结果表明:当微环半径为0.79 m时,谐振器中直波导宽度为0.3 m,环形波导宽度为0.25 m,滤波器的自由光谱范围为140 nm,插入损耗为0.5 dB,半峰全宽为7 nm,此滤波器的性能完全满足粗波分复用系统的要求。     

Characterization of a 4 × 4 Gb/s Parallel Electronic Bus to WDM Optical Link Silicon Photonic Translator

A 4times4 Gb/s microring modulator cascade, which can directly convert data from a parallel electrical bus to a multiple-wavelength optical signal in a single silicon-on-insulator waveguide, is demonstrated and characterized. The integrity of the modulated optical signal is verified using Q-factor extrapolations. In addition, the frequency characteristics and crosstalk, in terms of total harmonic distortion, are quantified. A transparent translator from electronics to optics such as this is crucial for the development of large-scale high-bandwidth interconnects based on photonic integrated circuits     

1.25-Gb/s bidirectional colorless WDM-PON based on RSOA using subcarrier detection and optical carrier suppression

A new architecture for bidirectional gigabit colorless wavelength division multiplexed-passive optical network system based on a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier is proposed. It uses techniques of both optical carrier suppression and subcarrier multiplexing. There is no impact of a downlink signal on an uplink one due to the wavelength reuse because a light from a single optical source is divided into two parts for uplink and downlink transmissions. One is modulated by a downlink signal and the other, which is transformed into two sidebands with a suppressed optical carrier, is utilized for an uplink transmission. An uplink data is recovered by subcarrier multiplexing technique. 1.25-Gb/s error-free transmissions of both uplink and downlink are demonstrated experimentally.     

Real-time 850 nm multimode VCSEL to 1 550 nm single mode VCSEL data routing for optical interconnects

Short-reach optical interconnects among massive serves in data centers have attracted extensive research recently. Increasing capacity, cost and power efficiency as well as wavelength switching between data center network nodes are still key challenges for current optical interconnects. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate the real-time inter-mode optical wavelength switching technique, for high-speed wavelength flexible data center interconnects. A 10 Gbit/s 1 550 nm single mode vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is optically injected and used to control a 10 Gbit/s multimode VCSEL carrier at 850 nm. Results show that a clearly open eye diagram is achieved at back-to-back analysis, implying a successful wavelength switch and error-free operation at 10 Gbit/s. A fully optical wavelength conversion of a multimode VCSEL operation at 850 nm using a single mode VCSEL subject to external optical injection at 1 550 nm is reported. This work opens new perspectives towards the development of a cost effective high-speed real-time inter-band wavelength switching technique between servers and network devices operating at different transmission windows at network nodes, for current and future optical interconnects.     

Photonic access node using optical code-based label processing andits applications to optical data networking

An ultrahigh-speed photonic access node using optical code-based photonic add-drop multiplexing (PADM) and its novel applications to optical data networking are proposed. PADM processes a photonic label of packet, which is mapped onto an optical code, and adds-drops the packet from or to the node, or bypasses the node. PADM is distinct from conventional wavelength ADM (WADM) in that it can handle traffic on a packet-by-packet basis. In the application of PADM to optical data networking, pseudo-time division multiple access (TDMA) and rate-controlled asynchronous access are proposed. The analyses and their numerical simulations of the performances are presented. The simulation results demonstrate low packet-loss probability. Their optical implementations are also demonstrated, in which exploit parallel photonic label processing shows the applicability of proposed optical data networking in an ultrahigh-speed regime     

Broad-band high-silica optical waveguide star coupler withasymmetric directional couplers

A broadband optical waveguide star coupler with asymmetric directional couplers is proposed. A coupling or splitting ratio of the coupler is flattened with respect to wavelength by choosing appropriate values for Δβ and complete power transfer length. The wavelength characteristics of uniform and alternating Δ&thetas;b directional couplers are investigated, and their broadband operation is shown theoretically. To demonstrate the feasibility of the new proposal, 8×8 star couplers composed of such asymmetric directional couplers are fabricated by using high-silica waveguides on a silicon chip. A star coupler composed of asymmetric directional couplers exhibited 2-dB loss variation in the wavelength range of 1.3-1.55 μm, and this value was almost one fourth of that of a star coupler composed of symmetric directional couplers     

5/spl times/9 integrated optical star coupler in silicon-on-insulator technology

We describe fabrication of the first optical star coupler in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology. The 5/spl times/9 coupler consists of two silicon rib waveguide arrays with a radiative slab waveguide region. The star geometry was analyzed and designed using the beam propagation method. The coupler exhibits low loss (average excess insertion loss /spl alpha//spl sim/1.3 dB) and good coupling uniformity (standard deviation /spl sigma//spl sim/1.4 dB) at /spl lambda/=1.55 /spl mu/m. It represents a key component for realization of photonic circuits in a silicon integrated circuit technology.     

High-speed, compact silicon and hybrid plasmonic waveguides for signal processing

All-optical circuits for signal processing could be a promising solution to overcome the speed bottleneck of electronics.For the photonics industry,silicon becomes a competitive material of choice in the field of integrated optics for designing and implementing high-speed and compact photonic devices.To further increase the integration density,it is a critical challenge to manipulate light on scales much smaller than the wavelength for the dielectric waveguides due to the diffi-action limitation.Surface plasmon-polaritons (SPPs),which break the diffraction limitation,are receiving increasing attentions in recent years.This paper compares the advantages and disadvantages between electronic devices and optical devices taking differentiator as an example,and proposes an optical parametric amplifier (OPA) using silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide.     

Fully Embedded Board-Level Optical Interconnects From Waveguide Fabrication to Device Integration

This paper presents the latest progress toward fully embedded board-level optical interconnects in the aspect of waveguide fabrication and device integration. A one-step pattern transfer method is used to form a large cross-section multimode waveguide array with 45deg micromirrors by silicon hard molding method. Optimized by a novel spin-coating surface smoothing method for the master mold, the waveguide propagation loss is reduced to 0.09 dB/cm. The coupling efficiency of the metal-coated reflecting mirror, which is embedded in the thin-film waveguide, is simulated by an M² factor revised Gaussian beam method and is experimentally measured to be 85%. The active optoelectronic devices, vertical surface emitter lasers and p-i-n photodiodes, are integrated with the mirror-ended waveguide array and successfully demonstrate a 10 Gbps signal transmission over the embeddable optical layer.     

Simple technique to fabricate microscale and nanoscale silicon waveguide devices

Fabrication of microscale and nanoscale sili-con waveguide devices requires patterning silicon, but until recently, exploitation of the technology has been restricted by the difficulty of forming ever-small features with minimum linewidth fluctuation.A technique was developed for fabricating such devices achieving vertical sidewall profile, smooth sidewall roughness of less than 10 nm, and fine features of 40 nm.Subsequently, silicon microring resonator and silicon-grating coupler were realized using this technique.     

Progress in complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor silicon photonics and optoelectronic integrated circuits

Silicon photonics is an emerging competitive solution for next-generation scalable data communications in different application areas as high-speed data communication is constrained by electrical interconnects. Optical interconnects based on silicon photonics can be used in intra/inter-chip interconnects, board-to-board interconnects, short-reach communications in datacenters, supercomputers and long-haul optical transmissions. In this paper, we present an overview of recent progress in silicon optoelectronic devices and optoelectronic integrated circuits(OEICs) based on a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible process, and focus on our research contributions. The silicon optoelectronic devices and OEICs show good characteristics, which are expected to benefit several application domains, including communication, sensing, computing and nonlinear systems.     

Ultrahigh-Bandwidth Silicon Photonic Nanowire Waveguides for On-Chip Networks

An investigation of signal integrity in silicon photonic nanowire waveguides is performed for wavelength-division-multiplexed optical signals. First, we demonstrate the feasibility of ultrahigh-bandwidth integrated photonic networks by transmitting a 1.28-Tb/s data stream (32 wavelengths times 40-Gb/s) through a 5-cm-long silicon wire. Next, the crosstalk induced in the highly confined waveguide is evaluated, while varying the number of wavelength channels, with bit-error-rate measurements at 10 Gb/s per channel. The power penalty of a 24-channel signal is 3.3 dB, while the power penalty of a single-channel signal is 0.6 dB. Finally, single-channel power penalty measurements are taken over a wide range of input powers and indicate negligible change for launch powers of up to 7 dBm.     

Signal processing for optical communication

Optical communication plays a significant and increasing role in our society. The public demand for higher network speed requires an optical backbone network with larger capacity. Accompanying high transmission-rate optical communications system are severe technical specifications for optical devices and systems. Many popular optical devices could be represented with a digital filter model as described in this article. Use of well-developed signal processing techniques and algorithms to design these optical devices is a wise use of existing technology. The wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system, which is the dominating optical communication system, is introduced in this article. Three signal processing application examples for optical communications are presented: optical wavelength interleaver, an all-pass filter for chromatic dispersion compensation, and an electronic equalizer. As demonstrated in this article, signal processing could play an important role in the development of advanced optical communication systems. However, as demonstrated in the case of an electronic equalizer, some optical system characteristics may require special attention if signal processing techniques are to be applied successfully. Therefore, interdisciplinary cooperation between researchers in optics and signal processing will be crucial for optical communications to fully benefit from signal processing.     

A New Formulation of Coupled Propagation Equations in Periodic Nanophotonic Waveguides for the Treatment of Kerr-Induced Nonlinearities

Nonlinear phenomena could be used to implement important signal processing functionalities in future nanophotonic integrated optical devices. In this paper, a semi-analytical model incorporating the influence of Kerr-induced nonlinearity in the propagation of an optical signal inside a periodic nanophotonic waveguide is derived. The approach consists of a system of nonlinear coupled mode propagation equations and is applicable to both single and multimode waveguides. The influence of the mode group velocity on the value of the self-phase modulation coefficient gamma is analyzed and the impact of higher order nonlinear terms is also investigated both at the middle and edge of the guided band. The model is also applied to estimate the nonlinear coupling coefficients of a photonic crystal waveguide coupler and provides an efficient method to analyze the influence of nonlinear phenomena in periodic nanophotonic waveguide devices.     

Dispersion effects of FBG filter and optical SSB filtering in DWDM millimeter-wave fiber-radio systems

We study the optical filtering technique for dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) channel allocation of millimeter-wave fiber-radio signals in the optical double-sideband (DSB) format. First, we investigate both theoretically and experimentally the dispersion effect of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) used as the filter on DWDM millimeter-wave optical signal transmissions. This result suggests that the dispersion effect has to be considered in the DWDM channel allocation for millimeter-wave fiber-radio access systems. Next, we propose a DWDM allocation for millimeter-wave fiber-radio systems, which adopts the optical single-sideband (SSB) filtering technique at the receiver side by using a square response of FBG filter. It can realize the minimum WDM channel interval for optical DSB signals, while it enables the optical frequency interleave between the neighboring channels without any serious signal degradation due to the interchannel interference. Then, we experimentally demonstrate the error-free DWDM transmission of two 60-GHz-band, 155.52-Mb/s differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) fiber-radio signals over 25-km-long single-mode fiber (SMF) with the minimum channel interval of 83.6 GHz (=0.68 nm) by using the test-square response FBGs. Finally, we show that based upon the experimental results, in the micro- or pico-cellular DWDM broad-band millimeter-wave fiber-radio access network 1000 antenna base stations (BSs) under the coverage of the single central office (CO) would be feasible by sectorizing the zone.     

OPERA: an optical packet experimental routing architecture withlabel swapping capability

This paper describes experimental and simulation results of the optical packet experimental routing architecture (OPERA) project. The OPERA network is based on a novel optical network interface router design that is optically regenerative and supports optical Internet protocol related functions including label swapping, packet routing and forwarding operations and wavelength reuse. Routing is based on subcarrier multiplexed header addressing, packet-rate wavelength conversion, and arrayed waveguide router technology. The routers are cascadable and use a unique double stage wavelength converter that supports header regeneration/replacement and maintains the payload extinction ratio. This approach overcomes dispersion limitations normally encountered using double sideband subcarrier multiplexing across a network. A discrete time simulation of the physical transport in an 8-hop network is reported. Multihop routing is experimentally demonstrated between two all-optical nodes and three input-output (I-O) ports of a waveguide grating array router. Packet-rate subcarrier header processing and wavelength conversion between six wavelengths is shown with high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of recovered payload and headers at each hop     

Novel hollow optical fibers and their applications in photonic devices for optical communications

Novel photonic devices based on a new type of waveguide, hollow optical fibers (HOF), are described. Utilizing unique three layered structure of HOF, the central air hole, germanosilicate ring core, and silica cladding along with its adiabatic mode transformation capability we demonstrated versatile applications in short-haul, long-haul optical communications, and tunable wavelength selective devices. Detailed design parameters, fabrication arts of the fibers, and operation principles of the devices are discussed.