Configurable optical driver
AssigneeMACOM Technology Solutions Holdings, Inc.
InventorMerrick BROWNLEE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A configurable optical driver circuit includes an adjustable current source circuit configurable to drive one of a variety of different types of electrical to optical devices, an adjustable back-termination resistance circuit configurable to provide a back-termination resistance to one of a variety of different electrical to optical devices, and a programmable memory configured to provide configuration information to the adjustable current source circuit and to the adjustable back-termination resistance circuit to configure the adjustable current source circuit and the adjustable back-termination resistance circuit for operation with the one of a variety of different electrical to optical devices.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- accessing a configurable optical driver device,
- wherein the configurable optical driver device comprises one package pin configurable to drive a bias current for a directly modulated laser (DML), an electro-absorption modulated laser (EML), and a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL);
- and
- storing configuration information into said configurable optical driver device, wherein said configuration information is operable to configure said configurable optical driver device to drive said DML, said EML and said VCSEL.
A configurable optical driver circuit comprising:
- one package pin configurable to drive a bias current for a directly modulated laser (DML), an electro-absorption modulated laser (EML), and a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL);
- and
- a programmable memory configured to provide configuration information to said configurable optical driver circuit for driving said directly modulated laser (DML), said electro-absorption modulated laser (EML), or said vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL).
A configurable optical driver circuit comprising:
- a configurable optical driver integrated circuit comprising:
- a current mirror circuit having an adjustable current range;
- a digitally controlled variable resistance to adjust back-termination resistance;
- and
- a programmable memory configured to provide configuration information to said current mirror circuit and to said digitally controlled variable resistance to configure said configurable optical driver integrated circuit for operation with one of a plurality of different types of lasers,
- wherein each of said plurality of different types of lasers is characterized as having different bias current requirements;
- and
- a passive biasing network coupled to said configurable optical driver integrated circuit for setting DC bias points at driver outputs and at said one of a plurality of different lasers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.