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US 2004/0001680 A1Published application
Passive optical channel equalizer apparatus, methods and systems
AssigneeIntel Corporation
InventorAchintya K. Bhowmik
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Passive optical channel equalizer apparatus includes first and second waveguides arranged to form a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. A non-linear optical medium section is formed in one of the waveguides and is capable of self-phase modulating each channel of an N-channel multiplexed lightwave to produce an output lightwave having improved channel power uniformity.
Claims29
An apparatus comprising:
- first and second waveguides arranged to form a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI);
- and
- a non-linear optical (NLO) medium section formed in the first waveguide and capable of performing self-phase modulation of channels of an input multichannel lightwave traveling in the first waveguide such that the MZI is capable of producing a multichannel output lightwave having reduced channel power non-uniformity as compared to the input multichannel input lightwave.
An apparatus comprising:
- first and second waveguides arranged to form a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) having a central section;
- a non-linear optical (NLO) medium formed in one of the first and second waveguides in the central section to impart an intensity-dependent phase change to an N-channel lightwave traveling through the NLO medium so as to reduce channel power non-uniformity in the N-channel lightwave.
A system including:
- a plurality (N) of light sources to emit light at N different wavelengths corresponding to N channels;
- a multiplexer optically coupled to the N light sources to multiplex the N channels into a multiplexed lightwave;
- a first optical amplifier optically coupled to the multiplexer to amplify each channel in the multiplexed lightwave;
- a passive optical channel equalizer (POCE) having first and second arms, with a non-linear optical (NLO) medium in at least one of the first and second arms to induce an intensity-dependent phase change in each of the N channels to reduce channel power non-uniformity in the multiplexed lightwave.
1 more element
A method comprising:
- inputting a first multiplexed lightwave having N channels into a first waveguide;
- forming a second multiplexed lightwave with the N channels in a second waveguide from the first multiplexed lightwave;
- passing the first multiplexed lightwave through a non-linear optical (NLO) medium in the first waveguide to induce a phase change in each of the N channels relative to the N channels in the second multiplexed lightwave;
- and
- interfering the first multiplexed lightwave with the second multiplexed lightwave to produce a multiplexed output lightwave having a reduced channel power non-uniformity compared to that of the inputted first multiplexed lightwave.
2 more elements
A method comprising:
- generating a plurality (N) of guided lightwaves at N different wavelengths thereby forming first N channel lightwaves;
- multiplexing the first N channel lightwaves into a guided multiplexed N channel lightwave;
- and
- forming a channel-power-uniformized lightwave by passing the multiplexed N channel lightwave through a passive optical channel equalizer (POCE) having a waveguide with a non-linear optical (NLO) medium formed therein to induce an intensity-dependent phase change in each of the N channel lightwaves to reduce channel power non-uniformity in the multiplexed N channel lightwave.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.