A Second-Order Feedforward Optical Power Control Scheme for Automotive VCSEL Drivers

Author

Yin, Xin ; Bauwelinck, Johan ; Qiu, Xing-Zhi ; Vandewege, Jan

Author_Institution

INTEC/IMEC, Ghent Univ., Ghent, Belgium

Volume

22

Issue

22

fYear

2010

Firstpage

1683

Lastpage

1685

Abstract

This letter presents a feedforward optical power control scheme for automotive 150-Mb/s vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) transmitters. The bias current exhibits a second-order dependence upon temperature, while the modulation current is provided with a piecewise linear compensation of temperature variations. The resulting VCSEL modulation performance was analyzed in detail and experimentally validated. Over the harsh automotive temperature range from -40°C to 105°C, a high extinction ratio was maintained despite very tight tolerances on pulsewidth distortion (PWD); the variation of the emitted optical power was measured to be less than 1.2 dB, while maintaining an extinction ratio better than 12 dB and a PWD less than ±2%.

Keywords

automotive electronics; compensation; driver circuits; electric current control; feedforward; optical modulation; optical transmitters; power control; surface emitting lasers; temperature control; automotive VCSEL drivers; automotive vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser transmitters; bias current; bit rate 150 Mbit/s; extinction ratio; modulation current; piecewise linear compensation; second-order feedforward optical power control scheme; temperature -40 degC to 105 degC; width distortion; Optical distortion; Optical pulses; Optical receivers; Optical transmitters; Stimulated emission; Temperature measurement; Vertical cavity surface emitting lasers; Driver circuits; feed-forward systems; surface-emitting lasers; vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2010.2075924

Filename

5570907