Optical transmitter including a linear semiconductor optical amplifier
AssigneeFinsiar Corporation
InventorJeffrey D Walker
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved optical transmitter comprises a vertically lasing semiconductor optical amplifier (VLSOA) coupled to an external modulator and/or a laser source. The VLSOA, external modulator and laser source are discrete devices or alternatively integrated onto a common substrate. The integrated optical transmitter may be fabricated using a number of different methods, including based on selective area epitaxy, impurity induced disordering, etch and fill and silicon optical bench.
Claims45
An optical transmitter comprising:
- a modulated source for generating a modulated optical signal;
- and
- a vertical lasing semiconductor optical amplifier (VLSOA) coupled to the modulated source for amplifying the modulated optical signal, the VLSOA comprising:
- a semiconductor active region;
- an amplifying path traversing the semiconductor active region;
- and
- a laser cavity including the semiconductor active region, wherein the laser cavity is oriented vertically with respect to the amplifying path and pumping the laser cavity above a lasing threshold clamps a gain along the amplifying path to a substantially constant value.
An optical modulator comprising:
- an external modulator;
- and
- a vertical lasing semiconductor optical amplifier (VLSOA) coupled to the external modulator, the VLSOA comprising:
- a semiconductor active region;
- an amplifying path traversing the semiconductor active region;
- and
- a laser cavity including the semiconductor active region, wherein the laser cavity is oriented vertically with respect to the amplifying path and pumping the laser cavity above a lasing threshold clamps a gain along the amplifying path to a substantially constant value.
An optical source comprising:
- a laser source;
- and
- a vertical lasing semiconductor optical amplifier (VLSOA) coupled to the laser source, the VLSOA comprising:
- a semiconductor active region;
- an amplifying path traversing the semiconductor active region;
- and
- a laser cavity including the semiconductor active region, wherein the laser cavity is oriented vertically with respect to the amplifying path and pumping the laser cavity above a lasing threshold clamps a gain along the amplifying path to a substantially constant value.
A high power, high speed optical transmitter comprising:
- a laser source for generating an optical carrier;
- a modulator coupled to the laser source for modulating data onto the optical carrier at a data rate of at least 1 Gbps;
- and
- a linear, semiconductor optical amplifier coupled to the modulator capable of amplifying the modulated optical carrier to a power of at least 1 m W.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.