KPRC_Optical Communication_Components_Planar Lightwave Glass Waveguides

Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based add-drop multiplexer for 40 Gbps DWDM systems

Wavelength selective Bragg grating filters in form of periodic modulation of the refractive index along the waveguide can be laser-imprinted in fibers and planar lightwave circuits (PLC)s utilizing UV photosensitivity of the Ge-doped silica core material. Such gratings are extensively used in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems in many optical components including add/drop multiplexers. As a bit rates in DWDM systems continuously increase, these components must have low group delay dispersion as well as steep filter characteristics. In cooperation with PhoXtal AB a new grating assisted add/drop multiplexer (ADM) was developed for 40 Gbps DWDM systems. MachZhender interferometer (MZI)-based ADM structures were fabricated with silica-on-silicon planar technology using Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition and subsequent Reactive Ion Etching. The MZI consisted of two 3dB couplers and two identical Bragg gratings UV-imprinted in both arms of the interferometer. For imprinting of gratings in PLCs a computer controlled interferometer with special configuration was designed and fabricated. The interferometer allows writing gratings with periods corresponding to any wavelength within C-band. Gratings as short as 4 mm can give over 30 dB suppression of the reflected channel. If needed, group delay compensation can be introduced by programmable phase perturbation during grating writing. The fabricated ADMs have been tested and shown 0.4 nm flat top transmission bandwidth measured in drop port. Clear eye openings at 40 Gbps have been obtained, when tested with SHF 5005A multiplexer and Agilent 86119A optical sampling oscilloscope.

Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based add-drop multiplexer for 40 Gbps systems

Clear eye openings at 40 Gbps obtained

Group delay compemsation

For high speed transmission systems, dispersion introduced by the system elements causes pulse broadening and degrades pulse transmission. The dispersive properties of the filter are determined by its phase response. Group delay defined as variation of phase with frequency is responsible for the delay time of the optical pulse passing through the device. For high speed systems group delay dispersion should be low. A simple solution is to use strong and short grating. Another possibility is to make the grating strong by increasing the length of the grating, but in this case the flat top channel spectrum (zero group delay dispersion) must be achieved by a special complex grating design. We present here a novel, patented method that can be used for improving of group delay of uncompensated gratings. The method that we suggest is based on a group delay compensator, the additional grating that compensates for both, design- and fabrication-caused group delay dispersion. We implement this group delay compensation to a developed MZI-based Add-Drop system.
50/50 coupler Main filter 50/50 coupler

An additional 50/50 broadband coupler at the Drop port 2 was introduced to implement second pair of Bragg gratings as the group delay compensator. Through the output 2c the group delay compensated Drop signal is leaving the Add-Drop multiplexer. The design of the main grating should be simple but should have high suppression of Bragg wavelength with decreased side-lobes in order to minimize crosstalk. The requirements for the compensator are as follows: the loss for reflection should be less than 0.1 dB within the bandwidth of the main filter and the group delay should compensate the one generated by the main filter within 80% of channel bandwidth
200 180 160
Group delay for the compensator Group delay for the main filter Finall group delay

Group delay compensator

200 180 160 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0

Proposed compensation of group delay dispersion in an Add-Drop multiplexer based on integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer.
1
Group delay for the 0.9 main filter Main filter reflection 0.8

1 0.9 0.8 0.7

Group delay [ps]

Group delay [ps]

0.7

140
Finall reflection

Reflection

0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 1544.50

0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0 1544.65 1544.80 1544.95 1545.10 1545.25 1545.40

1544.50 1544.65 1544.80 1544.95 1545.10 1545.25 1545.40

Wavelength [nm]

Wavelength [nm]

Reflection and group delay spectra for main filter,

group delay compensator

and final spectrum and group delay

Reflection