Integrated Microwave Photonics: The evolution from ASICs to Universal Processors
Daniel PEREZ, Ivana GASULLA, José CAPMANY
Universitat Politécnica de Valencia, Camino de Vera s/n,
Valencia, 46022, Spain
jcapmany@iteam.upv.es
Integrated microwave photonics (IMWP) deals with the application of integrated photonics technologies to microwave photonics (MWP) systems. During the last 5 years, IMWP has become probably the most active area of current research and development in the discipline of MWP, capitalizing upon the outstanding progress of integrated photonics in various material platforms such as indium phosphide (InP), Silicon on Insulator (SOI) and silicon nitride (Si3N4). In this paper, we will first introduce this topic with special emphasis on its relevant application fields to the community briefly outlining the salient characteristics of available material platforms that can be employed for the implementation of IMWP chips. We will compare the features of more mature material platforms such as InP, SOI and Si3N4.
Recent development in integrated photonic solutions for THz systems
Cyril C. Renaud, Katarzyna Balakier, Luis Gonzalez-Guerrero, James P. Seddon, Ahmad Mohammad, Martyn J. Fice, Alwyn J. Seeds
University College London, Torrington Place,
London WC1E 7JE, United Kingdom
c.renaud@ucl.ac.uk
THz technologies are continuing to develop for a wide set of applications and photonic is seen as a key technology for their development [1,2]. This is mostly due to their relatively high power, coherence and tuneability as well as, through through the development of optical co mmunication, high speed modulation. However, despite these advantages it is clear that for many application and the development of THz technology a smaller footprint and lower power consumption will also be essential. While photonic solutions using discrete components have shown promising results [3], it remains essential to solve these remaining problems. To do so will require integrated photonic solutions as it will naturally offer smaller footprint while some of the losses within a discrete element system could be better managed thus enabling lower power consumption.
Monolithically Integrated 1GHz Extended Cavity Linear Mode-Locked Laser
Robinson GUZMÁN, Guillermo CARPINTERO, Carlos GORDON, Luis J. ORBE
Department of Electronic Technology, Avenida de la Universidad 30,
Leganés, Madrid, 28911, Spain
PhoeniX Software, Hengelosestraat 705, 7521 PA Enschede,
The Netherlands
rcguzman@ing.uc3m.es
We report a monolithically integrated 42 mm long cavity linear mode-locked laser at 1541 nm, with a low repetition rate at 1 GHz. The device uses InP-based active-passive integration technology and integrated multimode interference reflectors. Passive (PML) and hybrid mode-locked (HML) regime operation are experimentally demonstrated. The device exhibits a very narrow RF linewidth of the beat note of few KHz and Hz for both regimes.
26 GHz Carrier Frequency 10 Gbit/s Radio-over-Fiber Link based on a Directly Modulated III-V/Si DFB Laser
Kasper VAN GASSE, Joris VAN KERREBROUCK, Amin ABBASI, Geert MORTHIER, Guy TORFS, Gunther ROELKENS
Photonics Research Group, INTEC, Ghent University -imec,
Gent, 9000, Belgium
IDLab, INTEC, Ghent University – imec, Gent, 9000, Belgium
kasper.vangasse@ugent.be
Worldwide mobile data traffic is expected to increase an eightfold by 2020 compared to 2015, reaching 30.6 exabytes per month [1]. To keep up with this increasing demand providers will need to use new technologies and network architectures, generally referred to as the 5th generation mobile network or 5G. Current mobile networks have pushed the link spectrum efficiency close to the Shannon limit by using complex modulation formats such as 64-QAM OFDM, leaving little room for improvement. To further improve connectivity and increase bandwidth more spectrum will be needed. This can be achieved through the use of currently unused bands and shrinking cell size to maximize spectrum re-use. To enable this, Radio-over-Fiber (RoF) links will be an important technology. When using higher carrier frequencies, it is beneficial to move the signal processing and signal up-conversion from the cell site to a central office. This greatly reduces deployment and operations cost, while enabling centralized control [2]. This is definitely the case for small cell architectures, where central control and low cost are essential. In many RoF links a Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) is used to imprint the RF signal on an optical carrier, as the MZM provides good linearity and high bandwidth. However, in recent years directly modulated semiconductor lasers (DMLs) have shown rivalling performance in digital transmission [3]. Also as transmitter in RoF links DMLs have been demonstrated as good transmitters [4]. The great advantage of using directly modulated lasers is the lower complexity, cost and insertion loss (defining the link gain) compared to using external modulation. Since deployment and operation costs are essential in 5G scenarios, DMLs are ideally suited as transmitters.