1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method to driver a semiconductor laser diode (hereafter denoted as LD), and an optical transmitter using the same.
2. Related Background Art
Various driving circuit have been well known in the field of the optical communication to drive an LD. The U.S. Pat. No. 6,697,400 has disclosed a method where the circuit provides a plural memories each storing the driving current Iac and the bias current Idc with respect to the temperature. The circuit reads out two currents depending on the temperature and determines the driving current. The Japanese patent application published as JP 2005-019546A has discloses another circuit where not only the bias current is adjusted depending on the temperature, but the modulation current is adjusted based on the optical output of the LD detected by a photodiode (hereafter denoted as PD) to keep the optical output and the extinction ratio in constant.
Another Japanese patent application published as JP 2008-270287 has disclosed a driving circuit where the bias and modulation currents are adjusted based on the temperature but the output of the temperature sensor exponentially varies to the temperature which enhances the accuracy of the driving.
The method to control the bias and modulation currents by a look-up-table (hereafter denoted as LUT), which stores values of those currents linked with temperatures, requires a large number of data for higher temperatures. Or, when the number of data is limited, the accuracy of the control or adjust of the optical output degrades. Because the threshold current of the LD exponentially varies in higher temperatures which results in considerable change in the modulation current to keep the average power and the extinction ratio of the LD in constant; accordingly, a large number of data for the modulation and bias currents is necessary for higher temperatures.
On the other hand, because the change of the driving current becomes gentle at lower temperatures, the driving current is sometimes necessary to be fine. In other words, a precise control of the driving current for the LD requests a fine temperature step at higher operating temperatures; while, requests a fine values for the current in lower temperatures, which inevitably expands the bit width for both the temperature and the driving current when the LD is digitally controlled.
A method according to the present invention relates to control the optical output from the LD by providing the modulation current and the bias current. The method may comprise steps of: (a) monitoring a temperature of the laser diode, (b) comparing the monitored temperature with a transition temperature, (c) setting the modulation current based on the monitored temperature when the monitored temperature is lower than the transition temperature, or based on the bias current when the monitored temperature is higher than the transition temperature.
The method may further include a step of, before the monitoring of the temperature, setting the bias current such that an average optical power output from the LD is kept constant in a preset value to the temperature of the LD. The method may also include steps of, before the setting of the modulation current and after the comparing of the temperature, calculating a temperature difference between the monitored temperature and a lastly monitored temperature, and setting the modulation current based on the monitored temperature when the temperature difference exceeds a threshold difference or based on the bias current when the temperature difference is less than the threshold current.
The method may further include a step of, before the monitoring of the temperature of the LD, setting the transition temperature to a value where a change of the extinction ratio with respect to the temperature of the LD becomes 0.1 dB. In the method of the present invention, the transition temperature may be 50±10° C.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method to start the operation of the optical transmitter. The method may comprise steps of, (a) powering on or negating DISABLE of the optical transmitter, (b) monitoring a temperature of the LD, (c) calculating a temperature difference between the monitored temperature and a lastly monitored temperature, and (d) setting the modulation current based on the monitored temperature when the temperature difference is greater than a threshold difference, or based on the bias current when the temperature difference is less than the threshold difference.
The method of the invention may further comprise steps of, after the calculating the temperature difference and before setting the modulation current, comparing the monitored temperature with a transition temperature when the temperature difference is less than the threshold difference, and setting the modulation current based on the monitored temperature when the monitored temperature is lower than the transition temperature, or based on the bias current when the monitored temperature is higher than the transition temperature.
The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of the following detailed description of various embodiments of the invention in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
Next, preferred embodiments according to the present invention will be described in detail. In the description of the drawings, the same elements will be referred by the same symbols or the same numerals without overlapping explanations.
One type of optical transceivers is called as a pluggable optical transceiver where the transceiver is implemented with an optical subassembly that converts an optical signal into an electrical signal, or an electrical signal into an optical signal, and is able to be hot-swapped to the host system, that is, the transceiver is pluggable without powering the host system off. The pluggable optical transceiver primarily comprises three components, one of which is a transmitter optical sub-assembly (TOSA) including an LD with a PD to monitor the optical output of the LD, both of which are enclosed in a package; another on of which is a receiver optical sub-assembly (ROSA) that encloses a PD to detect the optical signal and a trans-impedance amplifier (TIA) in a single package; and the last of which is an electronic circuit implemented on a circuit board. The pluggable optical transceiver described above often follows a multi-source-agreement in outer dimensions and electrical specifications thereof which is agreed by vendors and becomes a de facto standard. One of MSAs is, what is called as the SFP standard (Small Form-factor Pluggable).
The optical transmitter comprises the TOSA and the circuit described above, and, as illustrated in the block diagram of
The operation of the optical transmitter 1 will be described. The PD 5 generates a photocurrent Ipd that reflects the optical output power, exactly the average output power, of the LD 5. This photocurrent Ipd is converted into a voltage signal VPD by flowing in the resistor 7, and the voltage signal VPD enters the first control unit 9. The first control unit 9 includes two differential amplifiers, 17 and 19, a buffer transistor 21, and a resistor 25. The non-inverting input of the first amplifier 17 receives a voltage signal V1 from the second control unit 15, while, the inverting input thereof receives the converted signal VPD from the resistor 7. The non-inverting input of the second amplifier 19 receives the output of the first amplifier 17, and the output thereof drives the buffer transistor 21. The buffer transistor 21 in the collector thereof is coupled with the LD 3 through an inductor, while the emitter is coupled with the inverting input of the second amplifier 19 and the second control unit.
The second control unit 15 operates such that the monitor voltage VPD becomes equal to the first reference voltage V1 by adjusting the magnitude of the bias current Ibias. That is, the bias current Ibias is set such that the average optical output of the LD 3, which is converted to the monitor voltage VPD, becomes equal to the first reference V1. This operation may compensate not only the time degradation of the LD 3 but the temperature dependence thereof. Generally, the temperature dependence of a semiconductor laser diode, such as that of the threshold current Ith and the slope efficiency .eta., is far greater than that of an electronic device like a transistor. The resistor 25 coupled to the emitter of the buffer transistor 21 may generate a voltage signal of V2 by flowing the bias current Ibias therein. Thus, the second amplifier 19 combined with the buffer transistor 21 operates as a current source 23 whose output current, the bias current Ibias and converted into the voltage signal V2, becomes equal to the output of the first amplifier 17.
The second control unit 15 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 35, two analog-to-digital converter (A/D-C), 27 and 29, two digital-to-analog converter (D/A-C), 31 and 33, and a storage to save preset parameters. The storage may be included in the CPU 35. The first A/D-C 27 converts the second signal V2 into a digital form, while the second A/D-C 29 converts a temperature Tc sensed by the temperature sensor 11 into another digital form. The first D/A-C 31 generates the first reference V1 based on a parameter hold in the second control unit 15 for the first differential amplifier 17, while the second D/A-C 33 sets a signal corresponding to the modulation current Imod in the LD-driver 13.
The second control unit 15 decides the magnitude of the modulation current based on the temperature T sensed by the temperature sensor 11 or the current magnitude of the bias current Ibias corresponding to the voltage signal V2 by referring to a parameter look-up-table (LUT) in the CPU 35.
Further specifically, the second control unit 15 reads one of modulation currents from the LUT described above, which is to be set in the second D/A-C 33, based on the current bias current Ibias or the current temperature T. The modulation current Imod may be adjusted by a new digital signal thus set in the second D/A-C 33. New modulation current may keep the extinction ratio of the optical signal output from the LD 3. The extinction ratio depends on the modulation current Imod, the bias current Ibias and an inherent I-L characteristic of the LD 3. Concurrent with the extinction ratio, the average output POUT of the LD 3, which is also determined by an equation of two currents, POUT=Ibias+Ibias/2, may be solely determined by the APC circuit; therefore, the average power POUT is independent of the temperature and the time degradation of the LD 3. The extinction ratio strongly depends on two currents and the I-L characteristic of the LD 3 by an equation of:
R[extinction ratio]=(Ibias+Imod−Ith)/(Ibias−Ith),
where Ith is the threshold current of the LD. Accordingly, the extinction ratio R may be substantially kept constant by constructing the LUT for the modulation current Imod so as to follow the equation above.
As already described, it is necessary for the optical transmitter 1 to take the I-L characteristic of the LD shown in
The modulation current Imod exponentially increases with respect to the temperature, and because the slope of the behavior considerably increases in a region over 60° C., greater accuracy and a fine step in the temperature will be necessary in the LUT. On the other hand, as shown in
Furthermore, when a greater extinction ratio is requested, the bias current Ibias is set to be almost equal to be the threshold current Ith of the LD, which sometimes less than 1 mA. Then, the A/D-C used under such a condition is necessary to have a substantial accuracy around null inputs. The digital processing for a signal inevitable attributes with the quantizing error by ±1 bit. When the input of the A/D-C becomes small, almost null, the quantizing error reciprocally expands with the true input.
Therefore, the second control unit 15 according to the present invention divides the control sequence into two algorithms at a transition temperature T·α, and uses the first table TA1 where the modulation currents Imod are linked with the temperatures at a region lower than the transition temperature, while, in a region over the transition temperature T·α, the control sequence in the second control unit 15 uses the second table TA2 where the modulation currents Imod are linked with the bias currents Ibias. The transition temperature T·α may be set such that, after the modulation current Imod are measured to create the table TA1 by changing the temperature in a almost same step as shown in
Moreover, the second control unit 15 operates, at the booting of the optical transmitter 1, so as to determine the bias current Ibias by referring to the first table TA1 always. Specifically, the second control unit 15 refers to the first table TA1 during while the change in the temperature exceeds a threshold β, which is typically about 6 [° C./30 sec]=12 [° C./min]. This is because the temperature of the LD 3 widely changes for about 30 seconds after the starting up and the control unit 15 may avoid a large discrepancy in the modulation current Imod at the switching from the table TA1 to the other TA2.
Subsequently, negating DISABLE, the optical output by the LD 3 becomes active at step S04. Synchronous with the negation of DISABLE, the APC loop of the PD 5, the resistor 7 and the first control unit 9 also becomes active. The process shown in
On the other hand, the difference in the temperature ΔT is less than the threshold β, the second control unit 15 further verifies whether the current temperature Tc is greater or less than the transition temperature T·α. When the current temperature Tc is less than the transition temperature T·α, step S09, the second control unit 15 sets a new modulation current Imod based on the first table TA1 at step S08. While, the second control unit 25 monitors the current bias current Ibias through the first A/D-C 27 at step S10, and sets a new modulation current Imod based on the second table TA2 at step S11. Thus, the algorithm iterates steps from S05 to S11.
The control process carried out in the optical transmitter 1 for the LD 3 thus described operates the bias current Ibias so as to maintain the average optical power in constant by the loop of the PD 5, the resistor 7 and the first control unit 9, which is what is called as the APC loop. At same time of the control of the bias current Ibias, the optical transmitter 1 measures the operating temperature of the LD 3 to control the modulation current Imod. A specific device, such as thermistor with larger temperature dependence in the resistance thereof, is necessary to be arranged immediately close to the LD 3 within a package, which increases a count of lead pins and a size of the package. An optical transceiver installing such an optical device with the package usually follows the standard with limited dimensions for the outer shape thereof, which is almost impossible to show a realizable arrangement. One solution is known in which the optical transceiver arranges the temperature sensing device out of the optical device, for instance, on the circuit board that mounts the control circuit, and substitutes an ambient temperature of the optical device inside the optical transceiver for the operating temperature of the LD. Generally, both the bias current Ibias and the modulation current Imod, which makes the average power and the extinction ratio of the LD in constant, are held with respect to the temperature in the memory as the look-up-table, and the LD is driven in accordance with both currents. However, as described above, the conventional algorithm requires a fine temperature step and an enhanced accuracy for the measured temperatures because the modulation current Imod exponentially behaves in higher temperatures.
Moreover, the method to adjust the modulation current Imod based on the ambient temperature measured apart from the LD, where a thermal pass from the LD to the temperature sensor becomes larger; accordingly, it takes a longer period from the powering on the system until the optical output becomes stable. Moreover, the ambient temperature depends on the fluctuation of the temperature of not only the LD but the other electronic circuit mounted on the circuit board. The conventional optical transmitter controls or adjusts the driving current for the LD under the single algorithm, which inevitably spends a lot of time until the optical output performance of the optical transmitter becomes stable.
The optical transmitter according to the present embodiment provides the second control unit 15 that sets the modulation current Imod based on the temperature of the LD, or the ambient temperature of the optical transmitter inside the optical transceiver when the temperature is less than the transition temperature; while, the control unit 15 sets the modulation current Imod based on the bias current Ibias currently flowing in the LD. Accordingly, the step of the temperature for setting the modulation current Imod is unnecessary to be further finer and the D/A-C to set the modulation current is unnecessary to provide a greater resolution.
The second control unit 15 of the embodiment always refers to the first table TA1 when the change of the temperature ΔT exceeds the threshold temperature. In a case the second control unit 15 automatically refers to the bias current when the temperature exceeds the transition temperature T·α, the control unit 15 inevitably refers to the second table even in the optical transmitter is powered on. However, the optical output is inactive, and both the modulation and bias currents are set to be zero at the powering on of the optical transmitter, then, the APC loop for the bias current Ibias becomes active by the powering on or the negation of ‘DISABLE’, which sometimes increases the bias current Ibias drastically exceeding a critical current that breaks the LD. Moreover, when the temperature is higher than the transition temperature T·α, the modulation current Imod also extremely increases. The APC loop subsequently decreases the bias current Ibias so as to set the optical power in a target value, and the second control unit 15 also decreases based on thus reduced bias current Ibias. Accordingly, the optical output of the optical transmitter shows iterates large peaks and valleys as shown in
On the other hand, the second control unit according to the present embodiment sets the modulation current Imod by referring to the first table TA1 forcedly at the initial step after the powering on of the optical transmitter or the negation of ‘DISABLE’, which may set the modulation current close to a target value and may reduce the overshoots and the undershoots in the optical output power of the transmitter. The second control unit 15 continues to refer to the first table TA1 during the change of the temperature ΔT exceeds the threshold β. The temperature considerably varies just after the powering on due to the self heating as shown in
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