This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2005-0121977, filed on Dec. 12, 2005, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for maintaining a constant extinction ratio of a laser diode of an optical transceiver, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for maintaining a constant extinction ratio using correlations between a bias current and a modulation current.
2. Description of the Related Art
When the slope of the characteristic curve decreases as stated above and the LD is operated using a bias current and a modulation current that are identical, optical power level and the extinction ratio are reduced causing deterioration in the transmission performance of the LD.
The extinction ratio indicates the ratio of two optical power levels 0 and 1 in a digital optical transport, and is expressed in dB.
Since a receiver can easily determine the optical power levels 0 and 1 as the extinction ratio increases, the extinction ratio is one of the important performance parameters that a transmitter must maintain constantly even if temperatures increase or there are changes in the environment.
A thermistor or temperature sensor was used in order to compensate for a reduction of the extinction ratio of the LD, as shown in
However, since the method of compensating for the reduction of the extinction ratio by sensing the change in the temperature and using the feedback circuit for changing the modulation current compensates for a change in the modulation current according to the change in the temperature using a linear function that has one slope, it is impossible to maintain the constant extinction ratio over the broad temperature range.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for maintaining an extinction ratio of a laser diode (LD) using a relationship between two parameters based on an experiment where there are correlations between a bias current for obtaining a constant optical power level and a modulation current to obtain a constant extinction ratio.
According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for maintaining a constant extinction ratio of a laser diode (LD), the apparatus comprising: an automatic power control circuit maintaining the constant optical power of the LD; a correlation deriver deriving correlations between a bias current of the LD and a modulation current to maintain the constant extinction ratio of the LD; and a modulation current control circuit controlling the modulation current to maintain the constant extinction ratio of the LD based on the correlations.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of maintaining a constant extinction ratio of an LD, the method comprising: controlling an automatic power for maintaining constant optical power of the LD; deriving correlations between a bias current of the LD and a modulation current to maintain the constant extinction ratio of the LD; and controlling the modulation current to maintain the constant extinction ratio of the LD based on the correlations.
The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent by describing in detail exemplary embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings in which:
The present invention will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings in which preferred embodiments of the invention are shown.
The variation of the extinction ratio forms a curve as the temperature varies. In detail, a conventional method of compensating for the extinction ratio using a linear function in which a modulation current varies according to temperature cannot maintain the constant extinction ratio over the broad temperature range.
The operating principle of the apparatus will be described. To maintain constant optical power, the micro controller 511 outputs a control signal with an analog voltage to the bias current controller 506 via the D/A converter 509 so that a bias voltage can be applied to the LD 502, through which a current flows.
An optical power level is changed to a voltage signal via a monitor photodiode (PD) 503 and a resistor 512. The voltage signal is converted into a digital signal by the A/D converter 510 and is input to the micro controller 511.
A feedback circuit makes it possible to maintain a target optical power level by controlling the bias current controller 506 so as to maintain a constant voltage input from the A/D converter 510 to the micro controller 511. The bias current monitor 504 monitors current that flows into the LD 502, thereby controlling the modulation current based on correlations between the bias current and the modulation current, which will be described in detail later.
The apparatus for compensating for the extinction ratio of the LD of the current embodiment of the present invention does not use a temperature sensor but monitors the bias current of the LD 502 and increases or decreases the modulation current accordingly.
Referring to
The modulation current control voltage 513 is measured to maintain the constant extinction ratio over a predetermined temperature range, e.g., −5˜+80° C. (Operation 620).
The relationship between the bias current X and the modulation current control voltage Y is derived to maintain the extinction ratio when the temperature is within a predetermined range (Operation 630) as illustrated in
When the bias current increases relative to the bias current at a normal temperature, the increase in modulation current control voltage is measured to calculate slope A, and when the bias current decreases relative to the bias current at a normal temperature, the increase in modulation current control voltage is measured to calculate slope B (Operation 640).
The calculated slopes A and B remain unchanged unless the product model of LD 502 or the LD driver 501 is changed. Therefore, if the experiment is only conducted at an initial stage of development or production, the calculated slopes A and B ensure the extinction ratio to be maintained by separately programming the optical transceivers as illustrated in
Referring to
When the bias current is greater than the determined bias current C (Operation 820), a modulation current control voltage Y (a modulation current control voltage 513 in
Modulation Current Control Voltage Y=slope A×Bias Current X+control voltage D (1)
When the bias current is less than the determined bias current C (Operation 820), a modulation current control voltage Y (a modulation current control voltage 513 in
Modulation Current Control Voltage Y=−slope B×Bias Current X+control voltage D (2)
Referring to
A modulation current is monitored to maintain the constant extinction ratio of the LD according to the temperature (Operation 910).
A relationship between the bias current and the modulation current according to temperature is derived (Operation 920).
The modulation current of the LD is changed based on the relationship between the bias current and the modulation current to maintain the extinction ratio (Operation 930).
The apparatus and method for maintaining a constant extinction ratio of an LD according to the present invention have the following advantages.
The apparatus and method for maintaining an extinction ratio using correlations between an a bias current and an a modulation current of an LD according to the present invention compensate for a reduction in the extinction ratio according to a characteristic curve variance of the LD according to temperature and a characteristic curve variance due to a deterioration in performance of the LD.
The method of the present invention is more accurate than a method of compensating for the modulation current according to the temperature changes using a linear function over the broad temperature range.
While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10-2005-0121977 | Dec 2005 | KR | national |
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Number | Date | Country | |
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20070133634 A1 | Jun 2007 | US |