Enhanced subranging electro-optic modulator (SEOM) for high dynamic range applications

A method of electrooptic modulation, employing a distributed subranging architecture and comprising:

• transmitting a plurality of laser beams, each of the plurality of laser beams operating at a different wavelength;
• delivering the plurality of laser beams to a corresponding plurality of electro-optic modulators, wherein the plurality of electro-optic modulators are ring resonator electro-optic modulators;
• applying a plurality of voltage bias signals to each of the corresponding plurality of electro-optic modulators;
• applying a data signal to be modulated at each of the corresponding plurality of electro-optic modulators in parallel;
• generating a plurality of modulated optical signals at the corresponding plurality of electro-optic modulators based at least in part on the plurality of voltage bias signals and the plurality of wavelengths, wherein an input range of the data signal is captured by a linear portion of a transfer function of the corresponding plurality of electro-optic modulators and a linear portion of a range of the plurality of modulated optical signals is increased due to a number of the corresponding plurality of electro-optic modulators;
• sending the plurality of modulated optical signals to a wavelength division multiplexer to generate a multiplexed modulated optical signal;
• transmitting the multiplexed modulated optical signal though an optical fibre, or a free space optical communication channel, to a receiving device;
• demultiplexing the multiplexed modulated optical signal with an optical demultiplexer to generate a plurality of received modulated optical signals;
• detecting the plurality of received modulated optical signals at an associated plurality of photodetectors;
• converting the detected plurality of received modulated optical signals into a plurality of received digital modulated optical signals using an analog-to-digital converter;
• performing a threshold operation on the plurality of received digital modulated optical signals to identify the range between a minimum and a maximum wherein the range corresponds to the linear portion of the transfer function;
• and
• splicing or fusing the plurality of received digital modulated optical signals into a final received optical signal, wherein the final received optical signal spans the linear portion of each electro-optic modulator.