Wavelength multiplexers, demultiplexers and routers based on optical phased arrays play a key role in multiwavelength telecommunication links and networks. In this paper, a detailed description of phased-array operation and design is presented and an overview is given of the most important applications.

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PHASAR-based WDM-devices: Principles, design and applications

From the Publisher:
A Unique, Cutting-Edge Approach to Optical Filter Design With more and more information being transmitted over fiber-optic lines, optical filtering has become crucial to the advanced functionality of todays communications networks. Helping researchers and engineers keep pace with this rapidly evolving technology, this book presents digital processing techniques for optical filter design. This higher-level approach focuses on filter characteristics and enables readers to quickly calculate the filter response as well as tackle larger and more complex filters. The authors incorporate numerous theoretical and experimental results from the literature and discuss applications to a variety of systemsincluding the new wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, which is fast becoming the preferred method for system upgrade and expansion. Special features of this book include:
*The theory underlying various architectures that can approximate any filter function
*Filter design techniques applicable to a broad range of materials systemsfrom silica to fiber to microelectromechanical (MEM) systems
*Design examples relevant to filters for WDM systems and planar waveguide devices
*250 figures as well as problem sets for use in graduate-level studies

Optical Filter Design and Analysis: A Signal Processing Approach

A single-mode fiber connectorized microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) reflective optical switch attenuator operating in the 1550-nm wavelength region is described The device consists of an electrostatically actuated gold-coated silicon vane interposed in a fiber gap yielding 081-dB minimum insertion loss in the transmit state and high transmission isolation in the reflection state with 215-dB minimum return loss The switch attenuators also work as continuously variable optical attenuators capable of greater than 50-dB dynamic range and can be accurately regulated with a simple feedback control circuit Switching voltages were in the range of 5-40 V and a switching time of 64 /spl mu/s was achieved The MEMS switch can be used in optical subsystems within a wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) optical network such as optical power regulators, crossconnects, and add/drop multiplexers We used a discrete array of 16 switch attenuators to implement a reconfigurable 16-channel 100-GHz spacing WDM drop module of an add/drop multiplexer Thru-channel extinction was greater than 40 dB and average insertion loss was 21 dB Both drop-and-transmit of multiple channels (11-18-dB contrast, 14-19-dB insertion loss) and drop-and-detect of single channels (>20-dB adjacent channel rejection, 10-14-dB insertion loss) were demonstrated

A silicon MEMS optical switch attenuator and its use in lightwave subsystems

A method is presented for synthesizing a coherent two-port lattice-form optical delay-line circuit that is composed of optical delay lines, directional couplers, and phase shifters. The two bases of the method are the use of a unimodulus para-unitary matrix as a transfer matrix and the division of the transfer matrix into basic component transfer matrices. We succeeded in obtaining a set of recurrent equations with which to calculate circuit parameters to use for designing an optical delay-line circuit with a desired cross-port (through-port) transfer function. In the developed method, it is shown that two-port optical delay-line circuits can have the same transmission characteristics as finite impulse response digital filters with complex expansion coefficients. Three synthesis examples for optical frequency filters are described: a linear-phase Chebyshev filter, a multi-channel selector, and a group-delay dispersion equalizer. It is confirmed that transmission characteristics with a maximum transmittance of 100% can be always synthesized. The allowable parameter error for the synthesized linear-phase Chebyshev filter is also discussed. >

Synthesis of coherent two-port lattice-form optical delay-line circuit

Silica-based integrated optical waveguide technology is reviewed. Low loss and manufacturable waveguides are made by chemical vapour, flame hydrolysis and electron beam deposition. Fibre to fibre insertion loss is as low as 0.3 dB for a 6 cm long waveguide. Bragg reflective add-drop filters are made with gratings formed by ultraviolet irradiation. The waveguide grating router has found important application as a multiplexer in dense wavelength multiplexed communications systems. Multiplexers with wide pass bands and stop bands are made with Fourier filters: these filters consist of a chain of alternating couplers and delaying arms. The good performance of waveguide grating routers and Fourier filters is due to the high degree of path delay and coupler control achievable by and processing in this technology.

Silica-based optical integrated circuits

An optical add/drop multiplexer (ADM) that enables full access to 16 individual wavelength channels has been fabricated on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC). The device consists of three arrayed-waveguide gratings which are connected by 16 thermo-optic switches. The on-off crosstalk for the main input to the main output port is less than -24 dB and that for the main input to the drop port is about -13 dB. The fibre-to-fibre insertion losses are 7-8 dB and 3-4 dB when signals are coupled to the main input port and to the add port, respectively.<
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16-channel optical add/drop multiplexer using silica-based arrayed-waveguide gratings

The authors report, in detail, an integrated-optic variable group-delay dispersion equalizer based on a lattice-form programmable optical filter. The variable dispersion equalizer consists of an alternating cascade of symmetrical and asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometers. An equalizer with nine symmetrical and eight asymmetrical interferometers is fabricated on a planar lightwave circuit and its dispersion varied step by step from -681 to +786 ps/nm in the operational frequency range of 16.3 GHz. The effectiveness of the equalizer is shown by compensating the dispersion of three different fibers with a single equalizer. The performance of the equalizer is also evaluated and examined by numerical investigations.

Variable group-delay dispersion equalizer using lattice-form programmable optical filter on planar lightwave circuit

An integrated-optic dispersion equalizer has been fabricated on a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) for the first time. The PLC optical dispersion equalizer can compensate for both negative and positive fiber dispersion values. In a preliminary experiment, we successfully compensated for the chromatic dispersion of a 20 km-long 1.3 /spl mu/m zero-dispersion fiber at 1.55 /spl mu/m. >

Planar lightwave circuit optical dispersion equalizer

An eight-channel flat spectral response arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer with asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder filters has been fabricated on the planar lightwave circuit (PLC). The monotonic spectral loss characteristics of AWG have been canceled by the opposite spectral response in the asymmetric MZ filter. The 1.5 dB bandwidth of 141 GHz and 3 dB bandwidth of 159 GHz are obtained for the 200 GHz channel spacing. The 1.5 dB bandwidth becomes 1.8 times wider than that of the conventional AWG. Crosstalks to neighboring and all other channels are less than -24 dB and the on-chip insertion losses range from 7.0 to 7.4 dB, respectively.

Y. Ohmori

Papers

16-channel optical add/drop multiplexer using silica-based arrayed-waveguide gratings

Variable group-delay dispersion equalizer using lattice-form programmable optical filter on planar lightwave circuit

Planar lightwave circuit optical dispersion equalizer

Eight-channel flat spectral response arrayed-waveguide multiplexer with asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder filters