Semiconductor optical amplifier with gain flattening filter

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9685762-B1
Application number	US-201514870711-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 30, 2015
Priority date	Sep 30, 2014
Publication date	Jun 20, 2017
Grant date	Jun 20, 2017

Abstract

Described herein are photonic integrated circuits (PICs) comprising a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to output a signal comprising a plurality of wavelengths, a sensor to detect data associated with a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA, a filter to filter power values of one or more of the wavelengths of the output signal of the SOA, and control circuitry to control the filter to reduce a difference between a pre-determined power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA and the detected power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising:
a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to output a signal comprising a plurality of wavelengths;
a sensor to detect data associated with a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA;
a filter to filter power values of one or more of the wavelengths of the output signal of the SOA; and
control circuitry to control the filter to reduce a difference between a pre-determined power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA and the detected power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

2. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the control circuitry is to further control a gain of the SOA.

3. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a temperature sensor, and the data associated with a gain value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA comprises a temperature of the SOA.

4. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises a power detector.

5. The PIC of claim 4 , further comprising:
a de-multiplexer to de-multiplex the output signal of the SOA into separate signals for each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA;
wherein the sensor comprises a plurality of power detectors to correspond to each output of the de-multiplexer.

6. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the sensor comprises an electronic sensor to detect a dither amplitude of the output signal of the SOA for determining a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

7. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises a passive material.

8. The PIC of claim 7 , wherein the filter comprises at least one of silicon, silicon nitride (SiN).

9. The PIC of claim 7 , wherein the filter comprises a finite impulse response (FIR) filter, or an infinite impulse response filter (IIR).

10. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises an asymmetric Mach Zehnder interferometer (AMZI), the AMZI further comprising a free spectral range (FSR) greater than or equal to a wavelength range of the output signal of the SOA.

11. The PIC of claim 10 , further comprising:
a second SOA;
wherein the SOA and the second SOA are included in a first branch and a second branch of the AMZI, respectively.

12. The PIC of claim 1 , further comprising:
a second SOA to receive the output of the filter.

13. The PIC of claim 1 , wherein the filter comprises III-V semiconductor material.

14. The PIC of claim 1 , further comprising:
a silicon on insulator (SOI) substrate;
wherein the SOA comprises a III-V material disposed on the SOI substrate, the SOA and the filter are coupled via waveguide formed from a silicon material of the SOI substrate, and the control circuitry is formed from the silicon material of the SOI substrate.

15. A wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) device comprising:
at least one of:
a transmission component comprising:
an array of laser modules to produce light having different optical WDM wavelengths onto a plurality of optical paths; and
a multiplexer having a plurality of inputs to receive light from each of the plurality of optical paths and to output an output WDM signal comprising the different optical WDM wavelengths; or

a receiving component comprising a de-multiplexer to receive an input WDM signal comprising the different optical WDM wavelengths and to output each of the different WDM wavelengths on a separate optical path;
wherein the at least one of the transmission component or the receiving component includes a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprising:
a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) to output a signal comprising a plurality of wavelengths;
a sensor to detect data associated with a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA;
a filter to filter power values of one or more of the wavelengths of the output signal of the SOA; and
control circuitry to control the filter to reduce a difference between a pre-determined power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA and the detected power value of each filtered wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

16. The WDM device of claim 15 , wherein the sensor of the PIC comprises a temperature sensor, and the data associated with a gain value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA comprises a temperature of the SOA.

17. The WDM device of claim 15 , wherein the sensor of the PIC comprises a power detector.

18. The WDM device of claim 17 , wherein the PIC further comprises:
a de-multiplexer to de-multiplex the output signal of the SOA into separate signals for each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA;
wherein the sensor comprises a plurality of power detectors to correspond to each output of the de-multiplexer.

19. The WDM device of claim 15 , wherein the sensor comprises an electronic sensor to detect a dither amplitude of the output signal of the SOA for determining a power value of each wavelength of the output signal of the SOA.

20. The WDM device of claim 15 , wherein the filter comprises an asymmetric Mach Zehnder interferometer (AMZI), the AMZI further comprising a free spectral range (FSR) greater than or equal to a wavelength range of the output signal of the SOA.

Assignees

• Aurrion Inc

Inventors

• Norberg Erik Johan
• Garcia John M
• Koch Brian
• Fish Gregory Alan

Classifications

• G02B2006/12138

  Sensor · CPC title

• G02F2001/212

  Physics · mapped topic

• H01S5/3013

  AIIIBV compounds · CPC title

• G02B2006/12164

  Multiplexing; Demultiplexing · CPC title

• H01S5/0683 Primary

  by monitoring the optical output parameters · CPC title