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AssigneeLucent Technologies Inc.
InventorsWilliam E. Derbyshire, Ralph Stephen Jameson, Khanh Cong Nguyen
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A heater system for heating an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) of a fiber optic communication system operable in an environment. The heater system includes a pump laser for providing optical power to an erbium fiber in the EDFA. The pump laser is cooled by a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) when a predetermined maximum temperature is reached to maintain the temperature of the laser below the maximum temperature value. The temperature of the laser is sensed by a temperature sensor and is conveyed to a control circuit for generating a control signal. A heater unit is thermally connected to the erbium fiber and is controlled by the control signal in the event that the sensed temperature falls below a predetermined minimum value to maintain the temperature of the fiber above the minimum temperature value. A switch is connected between the control circuit, the TEC and the heater to automatically direct current to either the heater or the TEC depending on the sensed temperature.
A method of upgrading an existing erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) system including an erbium fiber contained in an environment to maintain the erbium fiber at a temperature above a predetermined minimum temperature value, the EDFA system having a pump laser efficiently operable below a predetermined maximum temperature value for driving the erbium fiber, a temperature sensor for sensing the temperature of the pump/laser, a control circuit electrically connected to the temperature sensor for generating operating current in response to a value of the sensed temperature, and a thermo-electric cooler (TEC) thermally connected to the pump laser for cooling the pump laser when the sensed temperature exceeds the maximum temperature value, the method comprising the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.