Characterization of a Low-Cost, Monolithically Integrated, Tunable 10G Transmitter for Wavelength Agile PONs

Dynamically reconfigurable passive optical networks (PONs) using time-division multiplexing and dense wavelength division multiplexing will require low-cost, high-performance customer premises equipment to be economically viable. In particular, substantial cost savings can be achieved through the use of efficient re-growth free, foundry-compatible fabrication techniques. Using this strategy, this paper presents the first detailed characterization of a monolithically integrated transmitter comprised of a discretely tunable slotted Fabry-Pérot ridge waveguide laser, an absorptive modulator and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) produced using a standard off-the-shelf AlInGaAs/InP multiple quantum well epitaxial structure. This first generation device demonstrates a discrete single-mode tuning range of approximately 12 nm between 1551nm and 1563 nm with a side-mode suppression ratio ≥30 dB. Moreover, the integrated modulator section is shown to support transmission at 10 Gb/s using non-return to zero on-off keying with an extinction ratio in excess of 8 dB. Furthermore, using a time-resolved chirp measurement technique to examine dynamic deviations in the set carrier frequency, the modulator section exhibits a chirp contribution of <6 GHz using test patterns with high and low frequency content. In addition, the generation of optical bursts through the application of a gating function to the SOA section was found to shift the unmodulated carrier of a typical lasing mode by ≤8 GHz for gating periods comparable with a typical PON burst durations of 125 μs which are faster than the thermal response time of the transmitter material.