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Packaged Semiconductor Laser Optical Phase-Locked Loop (OPLL) for Photonic Generation, Processing and Transmission of Microwave Signals
L. N. Langley, M. D. Elkin, C. Edge, Member, IEEE, M. J. Wale, Member, IEEE, U. Gliese, X. Huang, and A. J. Seeds, Fellow, IEEE

Abstract In this paper, we present the rst fully packaged semiconductor laser optical phase-locked loop (OPLL) microwave photonic transmitter. The transmitter is based on semiconductor lasers that are directly phase locked without the use of any other phase noise-reduction mechanisms. In this transmitter, the lasers have a free-running summed linewidth of 6 MHz and the OPLL has a feedback bandwidth of 70 MHz. A state-of-the-art performance is obtained, with a total phase-error variance of 0.05 rad2 (1-GHz bandwidth) and a carrier phase-error variance of 721004 rad2 in a 15-MHz bandwidth. Carriers are generated in the range of 714 GHz. The OPLL transmitter has been fully packaged for practical use in eld trials. This is the rst time this type of transmitter has been fabricated in a packaged state which is a signicant advance on the route to practical application. Index TermsOptical phase-locked loops, optical transmitters, packaging, phased arrays, semiconductor lasers.

I. INTRODUCTION

ICROWAVE photonic systems incorporating photonic signal processing and ber optic transmission of microwave and millimeter-wave signals have been the subject of increasing interest over the last decade [1][10]. Proposed and investigated applications are manifold, ranging from optical signal processing and optically fed phased-array antenna beamformers to optical backbone networks for cellular phone systems. Common to all types of microwave photonic systems is the fundamental need for photonic transmitters and receivers. Most often, the receiver is implemented with a wide-bandwidth photodetector and succeeding ampliers,

Manuscript received October 19, 1998; revised March 13, 1999. This work was supported by the US Army CECOM under Contract DAA-B07-95-CD155. L. N. Langley, M. D. Elkin, C. Edge, and M. J. Wale are with the Photonics Division, Marconi Materials Technology (MMT), Caswell, Towcester NN12 8EQ, U.K. U. Gliese is with Research Center COM, Technical University of Denmark, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark. X. Huang and A. J. Seeds are with the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE, U.K. Publisher Item Identier S 0018-9480(99)05195-9.

whereas the transmitters are more complex and challenging to implement. Microwave photonic transmitters can vary signicantly in complexity depending on the chosen signal generation and detection techniques. In systems relying on intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD), the transmitter is most often implemented with a single laser (direct modulation) or a laser in conjunction with an intensity modulator (external modulation). On the other hand, dual-frequency laser transmitters for coherent remote heterodyne detection (RHD) can range from the fairly simple to the more complex. The optical phase-locked loop (OPLL) microwave photonic transmitter is an example of the latter. Since the successful construction of the rst OPLL [11], there has been signicant interest in this type of device [12][48], including its use in microwave photonic systems [17], [22], [36][38], [42], [44][48]. Solid-state laser OPLLs are relatively easy to implement due to their very narrow laser linewidth, which means that they do not require wideband feedback electronics or a short-loop-propagation delay. However, solid-state lasers tend to be too bulky and power consuming for practical use. Semiconductor laser OPLLs tend to be difcult to design and implement due to their requirement for wide-band feedback electronics and small loop delays, consequent from the wider laser linewidth. At the moment, the eld of microwave photonics is at a very important turning point. Many different technologies, techniques, and systems have been investigated in laboratories all over the world. The challenge of the next decade is to bring microwave photonics from the laboratory into practical application in the eld. To make this feasible, it is of great importance to investigate and fabricate integrated and packaged devices and subsystems. In this paper, we present the rst fully packaged semiconductor laser OPLL microwave photonic transmitter. The entire OPLL transmitter has been successfully designed [49] and constructed [50], [51] in one fabrication run. It is implemented with two custom-designed three-electrode distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, bulk microoptics, and a combination of discrete

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Fig. 1. Schematic of microwave photonic system based on dual-frequency transmission and RHD.

and integrated-loop electronics. The laser diodes are designed for narrow linewidth, wide bandwidth, and uniform and sensitive FM response, while the main challenge in the construction of the OPLL is the packaging and the realization of a wide feedback bandwidth. A state-of-the-art performance is obtained and the work and results obtained clearly demonstrate that semiconductor OPLLs can be designed for production and packaged for practical use. This is an important step forward within the eld of microwave photonic systems and, in particular, OPLL microwave photonic transmitters. The paper is organized as follows. The system context and the basics of OPLL microwave photonic transmitters are described in Section II. This is followed by a description in Section III of the design and construction of the packaged OPLL module. After this, the obtained performance results are presented and discussed in Section IV. Finally, conclusions are drawn in Section V. II. OPLL MICROWAVE PHOTONIC TRANSMITTER A. Dual-Frequency Signal Generation and RHD Microwave photonic systems may be based on either coherent or noncoherent techniques. The principles of coherent RHD are quite different from those of noncoherent DD [47], [48]. A simplied schematic of the RHD principle is shown in Fig. 1. At the transmitter end, two phase-correlated laser signals with a frequency offset corresponding to the desired microwave frequency are generated by a dual-frequency laser transmitter. Both signals are transmitted through the ber link to the receiver, where heterodyning takes place, resulting in a microwave signal proportional to the photodetector current, given by

Fig. 2. Schematic of an OPLL microwave photonic transmitter.

The major challenge in bringing RHD systems into practical application is the realization of suitably packaged dualfrequency laser transmitter modules. These can be implemented in different ways, and a signicant number of concepts such as dual-mode lasers, pulsed lasers, optical frequency shifters, single-side band modulators, suppressed carrier double-side band modulators, optical injection phaselocked loops, OPLLs, and optical feedforward modulators have been proposed and experimented with in laboratories around the world. An overview of these is given in [47], [48], and [54]. The work described in this paper takes the semiconductor laser OPLL from the laboratory table-top stage into a fully packaged module for practical use in eld trials while maintaining state-of-the-art performance. B. Basics of the OPLL Solution A schematic for the OPLL microwave photonic transmitter is shown in Fig. 2. It consists of a free-running master laser, an optoelectronic front end (PIN photodiode and microwave amplier), a phase detector (microwave mixer), a loop lter, a slave laser, and a microwave reference oscillator. The microwave signal generated by heterodyning the two laser signals is compared to the signal from the microwave reference oscillator in the phase detector. The resulting phase-error signal is fed back to the slave laser which is forced to track the master laser at a frequency offset corresponding to the frequency of the microwave reference oscillator. This causes a signicant reduction of the phase noise on the optically generated microwave signal. The required feedback bandwidth is determined by the summed laser linewidth, the requirements for loop stability and the phase noise requirements placed on the optical microwave signal by the system in which the OPLL is to be applied [56][58]. However, the feedback bandwidth is independent of the desired microwave frequency. The available frequency range is, therefore, solely determined by the operational frequency of the photodiode and microwave components. With current technology, OPLLs can be constructed for operation from RF frequencies to well within the millimeter-wave region. The tuning range of any of these frequency bands is largely determined by the bandwidth of the photodiode and microwave components. C. Implementation Complexity The major challenge in implementing OPLLs that operate with semiconductor lasers is the realization of a wide feedback

(1) is the responsivity of the photodetector, is the where is the instantaneous power, is the instantaneous time, is the instantaneous phase of the laser frequency, and signals. Equation (1) shows that it is necessary to maintain a well-dened relationship between the frequency and phase of the two signals. This makes RHD systems more complex than DD systems. Despite this, RHD systems are attractive for many applications as they offer a number of advantages compared to DD systems: higher link gain [52], comparable or higher carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) [52], lower sensitivity to chromatic dispersion [53], and a variety of photonic signalprocessing capabilities, such as amplitude control, frequency control, phase control, time-delay control, ltering, modulation, frequency conversion, and signal recovery [47], [48], [54], [55].

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bandwidth. This is necessary, since semiconductor lasers, without external noise-reduction circuits such as external cavities or negative electrical feedback, have a large amount of phase noise that [from (1)] appears directly on the generated optical microwave signal and has to be removed by the OPLL. The requirement for a wide feedback bandwidth leads to a number of other demanding requirements. In order to achieve the wide feedback bandwidth, the loop-propagation delay must be small, and the response bandwidths of the microwave components, together with the slave-laser FM response, must be wide and uniform in both magnitude and phase. These are not requirements that are easy to fulll, and they make it challenging to design and construct both components and the entire OPLL. Previously, only eight laboratory table-top OPLLs, based on direct phase locking of semiconductor lasers, have been implemented. Of these, three are homodyne [16], [34], [41], ve are heterodyne [17], [37], [38], [42], [45], and only one [38] has been applied in microwave photonic systems experiments [47], [48]. This clearly reects the design and implementation complexity involved in semiconductor laser OPLLs. Furthermore, packaging is a complex task, due to the large number of components and the coherent optics. However, as is shown in this paper, it is possible to design and implement packaged semiconductor laser OPLLs for production. III. DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION OF PACKAGED OPLL A packaged semiconductor laser OPLL has been designed and constructed for evaluation in a proof-of-concept coherent optical beamforming system [59]. The design involved optimization of the loop conguration and development of custom single-frequency laser diodes with the necessary narrow linewidth, frequency modulation, and tuning characteristics. An important design parameter for the OPLL is the feedback bandwidth, which must be wide to give the necessary phasenoise improvements. Consequently the loop-propagation delay must be minimized [56][58] and the physical dimensions of the OPLL must be reduced as much as possible. To achieve the desired performance, the optical parts of the OPLL are based on microoptics, and the loop-feedback electronics have been implemented using high-performance discrete and integrated microwave components and a custom-designed loop lter. Each laser has a miniature collimating lens and optical isolator. Other miniature lenses are used to focus the optical signals into the output ber and photodiode of the feedback electronics. Detailed design of the OPLL module required a well-founded OPLL theory [56][58], [60][62] and the use of expertise in several microwave and photonic areas, including the custom lasers, loop-feedback electronics, microoptics, and packaging and assembly. The OPLL performance was modeled continuously throughout package development. No performance sacrices were made in developing the packaged OPLL module, compared to previous bench-top experimental systems [37], [38]. Also, the design and construction techniques employed in its fabrication are those regularly used by Marconi Materials Technology (MMT) in a number of standard products and modules.

Fig. 3. Typical static-tuning characteristic of the three-section DFB laser. (I1, I2, and I3 are the rear-, middle-, and front-section bias currents, respectively.)

A. Lasers Semiconductor lasers for use in an OPLL must meet a number of requirements. First, for a given loop-propagation delay, the laser linewidth sets the minimum phase-error variance that can be obtained [57], [58]. For the packaged OPLL, the delay properties of the microoptic and microwave components resulted in a minimum delay of approximately 0.4 ns, requiring a beat linewidth of less than 8 MHz to meet the phaseerror variance specication. To achieve a delay of 0.4 ns, only an integrated or hybrid/microoptic solution is feasible. A ber-based OPLL cannot give acceptable performance for semiconductor lasers due to their megahertz linewidths. Second, the FM response of the laser directly affects the loop transfer function. Standard current-tuned lasers have an FM response dominated by thermal effects at low frequencies, giving a red-shifting response with increasing current, while at high frequencies, the response is dominated by bandlling and plasma effects, giving a blue-shifting response [63], [64]. Such a characteristic cannot be easily equalized in the loop lter. Third, laser output power above 5 mW is required to maintain a high loop gain. Finally, intensity noise and IM should be low, as any uctuation in output power will be converted to phase noise by the loop. To meet these requirements, custom 1.3- m semiconductor lasers have been designed and fabricated for use in the OPLL module. The lasers are of a three-section InGaAsP multiple-quantumwell rst-order uniform-grating DFB design, and are operated with asymmetric bias currents to the multiple sections to give a carrier-injection effect dominated, blue-shifting FM performance [65]. In this bias conguration, IM is suppressed. The laser output power is 1520 mW (dependent on device) under uniform bias conditions suitable for the master laser. When biased asymmetrically to generate the required FM properties, the output power can still be as large as 13 mW. The individual laser linewidths are in the range 14 MHz, depending on the bias conditions. Fig. 3 shows a typical statictuning characteristic. An FM sensitivity of 13 GHz/mA has

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Fig. 4. Typical dynamic FM response of the three-section DFB laser.

Fig. 6. Schematic representation of the module.

Fig. 5. Schematic circuit diagram for the loop-feedback electronics (bias circuits not shown, for clarity).

been achieved. All lasers have regions of blue- and redshifting FM characteristics. In the OPLL module, the laser is biased at a linear blue-shifting operation point of the statictuning response. The FM characteristics have been measured using a hi-bi ber MachZehnder interferometer operating as a frequency discriminator. A typical dynamic FM response is shown in Fig. 4, where the response is at and without any phase changes due to transition between thermal and carrier tuning [66]. A 3-dB FM bandwidth of 700 MHz with side-mode suppression of 3040 dB is obtained. B. Loop-Feedback Electronics A circuit diagram of the loop-feedback electronics is shown in Fig. 5. Bias circuits are not shown, for clarity. The current applied to the slave laser from the loop-feedback circuit ensures that the slave-laser frequency dynamically tracks the master-laser frequency offset by the local oscillator (LO) frequency. The system was designed for operation with lasers having the previously measured FM bandwidth and linewidth. In addition to this, the phase noise needed to be minimized for the 15-MHz noise bandwidth of the system in which this OPLL is to be used. Critical to reducing the phase noise are narrow laser linewidths and a wide feedback bandwidth. If the phase noise is too large, not only will this degrade the quality of the output signal, but also cause the loop to lose lock. The photodiode is a 20-GHz MMT device and the microwave pre-amplier is a MMT 220-GHz GaAs high electron-mobility transistor (HEMT) traveling wave amplier monolithic-microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) with integrated photodiode bias. A Magnum 4-14-GHz double-balanced diode ring mixer is used as a phase detector. The phase-

error signal from the phase detector is applied to the tuning section of the slave laser via the loop lter. A phase-lead compensated low-pass RC design was considered to give the best performance for the OPLL. The main advantage over other loop lters is that it signicantly reduces the carrierphase noise over the noise bandwidth, while maintaining good loop stability with the wide feedback bandwidth required for semiconductor lasers [62]. The lter was implemented using discrete surface-mount components. For the microwave components of the loop (amplier and phase detector), a full MMIC integration would be a good solution [67]. However, due to time constraints, this has not been carried out in this project. C. Microoptics, Assembly, and Packaging The OPLL module was designed for use with a coherent optical-beamforming demonstrator. In order to achieve the optical phase-shift processing in the subsequent beamformer, the two optical signals emitted by the OPLL must be arranged with orthogonal polarization states [55]. Semiconductor lasers emit light in the TE polarization only, so miniature /2 plates are used to rotate the polarization of the laser beams. A polarizing beamsplitter is then utilized to divert a small proportion of the light onto the photodiode of the loopfeedback electronics. The larger proportion of the two beams (TM for the master laser and TE for the slave laser) is coupled into a polarization-maintaining (PM) output ber. Efcient wavefront overlap of the two beams is required to give a strong microwave signal from optical mixing in the photodiode. The complete OPLL unit is assembled into a custom optoelectronic package, as illustrated in Fig. 6. Various construction techniques were used, such as laser welding for critical alignment components, plus solder and epoxy for less critical alignments. The laser subassemblies are constructed using a laser mount, to which the laser and associated components are soldered. Microoptic lenses and isolators are laser welded in place in front of the laser to give a collimated beam of 1-mm diameter. Each laser has a thermistor placed adjacent to it. This is used by ex-

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Fig. 7. Photograph of the OPLL module.

ternal temperature-control circuitry to control the laser wavelengths via a thermocooler, upon which the laser mount sits. The polarizing beamsplitter subassembly is constructed using standard commercially available 3.2-mm polarizing cube beamsplitters. Two half-waveplates and a polarizer are xed to its faces using optical cement. The half-waveplates are set at angles to give the required split ratio for each laser to the photodiode. The feedback electronics is assembled using standard microwave-construction techniques. A prism is xed above the photodiode using epoxy to deect the optical signals onto it. The module is assembled by rst placing the loop electronics within the package and then adding the optical components. The beamsplitter subassembly and slave laser are aligned together such that a signal is seen on the photodiode. The beamsplitter is then xed using epoxy, and the laser is soldered into place using the thermocooler as the heating element. Some background heat is also applied to the module. This process is then repeated for the master laser. A focusing lens is then positioned in front of the photodiode. The signal from the slave laser is maximized and the lens is then laser welded in place. The master laser is then also turned on and the beat signal is then maximized using a beamsteering lens. This lens is laser welded in front of the master laser. Finally, a further lens and the output ber are then laser welded into place to provide the module output. Prior to the addition of the output ber, the OPLL performance is monitored by focusing the two laser beams (through the output ber tube) onto an external photoreceiver. This resulted in a rigid and robust module suitable for operation in military specication environments. A photograph of the OPLL module is shown in Fig. 7. Overall module dimensions are 65 55 17 mm. D. Estimated Performance From the design and layout of the OPLL, the looppropagation delay can be estimated. The optical and electrical

contributions to the delay can be estimated from physical path lengths using knowledge of refractive indices and dielectric constants, respectively. The resultant estimated value for the optical delay is 90 ps. Circuit modeling and measurements were also used to estimate the electrical delay, the result being 290 ps. Therefore, the total estimated loop-propagation delay is 380 ps. A loop-feedback bandwidth (implemented by the lter) of 70 MHz has been chosen, taking into account the laser and loop-feedback electronics bandwidths, to give a sufcient phase margin for stable operation. Here, the feedback bandwidth is given as the frequency of unity open-loop gain. This is considered the best measure for feedback bandwidth, as it gives a xed comparable reference point, independent on the type of loop (loop order and type of ltering). For the feedback loop, the coupling efciency of the laser light to the photodiode is estimated as 3 dB for the microoptic assembly method chosen. A further 3 dB is lost due to the 45 polarizer, and also 5 dB due to the fraction of light diverted to the photodiode by the polarizing beamsplitter. The remainder is coupled into a PM output ber. The photodiode responsivity is 0.6 A/W at 1300 nm, and the MMIC amplier has a gain of 10 dB. The mixer has a conversion loss of approximately 6 dB. The estimated wavefront overlap loss of the two beams in the photodiode is 2 dB. A slave-laser FM efciency of 1.3 GHz/mA resulted in a modeled loop gain of 0.55 GHz. Further detailed modeling [56][58], [60][62] during the design process predicted a loop phase-error variance (innite bandwidth) of 0.02 rad with a carrier phase-error variance (in 15-MHz rad . The acquisition range at noise bandwidth) of an LO frequency of 9 GHz was calculated as 280 MHz. IV. MEASURED PERFORMANCE From the OPLL module, the output power into the PM output ber is 2.8 and 0.6 mW for the slave and master lasers, respectively. The measured locked OPLL output signal is shown in Fig. 8 for an LO frequency of 9 GHz. Close to the carrier, its spectral shape corresponds exactly to that of the reference LO signal. The phase-noise level is 95 dBc/Hz at a 50-MHz offset, corresponding to the loop resonance frequency, and decreases to less than 105 dBc/Hz at lower offsets. Of the total signal power, 96% is phase locked in the carrier, and the total phase-error variance is 0.05 rad (1 GHz bandwidth), of which the part within the 15-MHz noise bandwidth is 7 10 rad . The variation of phase-error variance with the noise bandwidth is shown in Fig. 9. For narrow noise bandwidths below a few megahertz, the phaseerror variance is constant and equal to that of the reference LO signal. As the noise bandwidth approaches the loop-resonance frequency, the phase-error variance increases signicantly and then approaches a constant value corresponding to the total phase-error variance (innite-noise bandwidth). Fig. 10 gives the acquisition range for various LO frequencies, showing that the loop operates from 7 to 14 GHz. The acquisition range is 370 MHz at 9 GHz, and as high as 700 MHz at 12 GHz. The lower acquisition range at 9 GHz is due to a minimum in the loop gain at that frequency, resulting from ripple in the loop-electronics transfer response. Key

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Fig. 8. Measured power spectrum for a 9-GHz locked output signal.

TABLE I KEY OPLL PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS

Fig. 9. Variation of phase-error variance with noise bandwidth for the signal of Fig. 8.

V. CONCLUSION A packaged semiconductor laser OPLL microwave photonic transmitter has been constructed for the rst time. It is suitable for eld trial operation and is intended for evaluation in a proof-of-concept coherent optical beamforming system for a phased array antenna communications system. The OPLL has been implemented with semiconductor laser diodes, microoptics, and discrete and integrated electronics to give a state-of-the-art performance. The laser diodes are designed for narrow linewidth, wide FM bandwidth, and high FM efciency, while the main challenge in the construction of the OPLL is the packaging and the realization of a wide feedback bandwidth. A total phase-error variance of 0.05 rad has been achieved (1-GHz bandwidth), and that within a 15MHz noise bandwidth is 7 10 rad . The OPLL can operate with LO frequencies from 714 GHz. At LO frequencies 370 MHz. The from 813 GHz, the acquisition range is performance of the packaged OPLL module is equivalent to previous bench-top experimental demonstrations. The results of this work clearly demonstrate that semiconductor OPLLs can be designed for production and packaged for practical use, while maintaining a state-of-the-art performance that is adequate for system application. This is an important step

Fig. 10. Measured acquisition range against LO frequency, showing that the OPLL module operates from 714 GHz.

performance parameters of the loop have been summarized in Table I, which show that the packaged OPLL has achieved a performance very close to that of the best bench-top experimental OPLL [38], [47].

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forward within the eld of microwave photonics. We expect loops of this type to nd application in a range of optical beamforming and broad-band ber-radio applications. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors wish to thank L. Coryell and J. Wright for support and useful discussions. REFERENCES
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L. N. Langley, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

M. D. Elkin, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

C. Edge (M98), photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

M. J. Wale (M92), photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

U. Gliese, for photograph and biography, see this issue, p. 1150.

X. Huang, photograph and biography not available at the time of publication.

Alwyn J. Seeds (M81SM92F97) received the Ph.D. degree from the University of London, U.K., in 1980, for work on the optical control of IMPATT oscillators. From 1980 to 1983, he was a Staff Member at Lincoln Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he worked on GaAs monolithic millimeter-wave integrated circuits for use in phased-array radar. In 1983 he was with Queen Mary College, University of London, where he lectured in telecommunications until moving to University College, Torrington Place, London in 1986, where he is now Professor of opto-electronics and Head of the Opto-electronics and Optical Networks Group. He has published over 150 papers on microwave and opto-electronic devices and their systems applications is the presenter of the video Microwave Opto-electronics in the IEEE Emerging Technologies series. His current research interests include microwave bandwidth tunable lasers, optical control of microwave devices, mode-locked lasers, optical phase-lock loops, optical frequency synthesis, dense WDM networks and nonlinear optical transmission. Dr. Seeds is Vice Chairman of Commission D (Electronics and Photonics) of the International Union for Radio Science (URSI) and Chairman of the Technical Committee on Lightwave Technology of the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society. He has served on the program committees for many international conferences and is General Chair for the IEEE MTT/LEOS International Topical Meeting on Microwave Photonics (MWP 2000) to be held in Oxford, U.K.