US 7,116,914 B2 · Optical signal regenerator

Abstract

The present invention regenerates optical signals in an intact optical state according to a low-speed optical clock. In one embodiment, an optical splitter applies a portion of optical pulse signals to a clock recovery circuit and the rest to an optical splitter. The optical splitter applies half of the input signal to an optical regenerator and the rest to another optical regenerator. The clock recovery circuit regenerates an electric clock signal with half the frequency of the input optical pulse and applies the clock to an optical clock pulse generator. The optical clock pulse generator generates an optical clock signal with half the frequency of the input optical pulse whose phase matches with that of the optical signal at the optical regenerator. An optical regenerator regenerates the optical signal from the optical splitter in an intact optical state. A polarization combiner combine the optical signals from the optical regenerators in mutually orthogonal polarization.

Claims15

Dependent claims

An optical signal regenerator comprising:

an optical splitter to split an input optical signal into n portions, wherein n is an even number;
an electric clock generator to generate an electric clock having a 1/n frequency of a bit rate of the input optical signal;
an optical clock generator to generate n optical clocks having a 1/n frequency of the input optical signal and matching to each timing of n time slots of the input optical signal according to the electric clock from the electric clock generator;
n optical regenerators, each regenerating an optical signal in an intact optical state according to the optical signal from the optical splitter and the optical clock from the optical clock generator;
and
an optical combiner to combine the optical signals from the n optical regenerators.

3 more elements

An optical signal regenerator comprising:

an optical splitter to split an input optical signal into n portions, wherein n a is an even number;
an optical clock generator to generate n optical clocks each having a 1/n frequency of the input optical signal and synchronized to the input optical signal;
n optical regenerators, each regenerating an optical signal based on one of the optical signal portions from the optical splitter and one of the optical clocks from the optical clock generator;
and
an optical combiner to combine n optical signals from the a optical regenerators.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Optical signal regenerator

Life of this patent

Optical signal regenerator

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15