1. Integrated Optical Wavelength Converters and Routers for Robust Wavelength-Agile Analog/ Digital Optical Networks
Daniel J. Blumenthal (PI), John E. Bowers, Larry A. Coldren, Nadir Dagli and Evelyn L. Hu (UCSB)
Research Goals
Demonstrate chip-scale integration of all-optical wavelength converter and wavelength router functions
Demonstrate conversion of any one of 32 input wavelengths to any one of 32 output wavelengths
Demonstrate conversion of digital signals out to 2.5 Gbps and analog signals with 20 GHz instantaneous bandwidth
Demonstrate low BER (10-9) and high SFDR (>100 dB/Hz)
Demonstrate wavelength converters with analog and digital signal performance monitoring capabilities
Technical Approach
Implement chip-scale functions using integrated active, passive and filter waveguides in common offset quantum well platform
Utilize single re-growth processes
Utilize low-loss fiber to InP waveguide coupling techniques
Improvements to Current State-of-the-Art
Integrated tunable laser, wavelength converter and optical filters
Wavelength-Agile: fast switching speed < 100ns
Low loss fiber-to-chip coupling using integrated mode converters
Novel two-stage converter design realizes any-l to any-l conversion without tunable filters, wide operating bandwidth and polarization independent operation
Large FSR coupled ring-resonator filter design
The goal of this program is to investigate and develop the next generation of photonic integrated Chip-Scale optical wavelength converter and wavelength routing platform.