A tunable dispersion compensating MEMS all-pass filter

Author

Madsen, C.K. ; Walker, J.A. ; Ford, J.E. ; Goossen, K.W. ; Nielsen, T.N. ; Lenz, G.

Author_Institution

Lucent Technol. Bell Labs., Murray Hill, NJ, USA

Volume

12

Issue

6

fYear

2000

fDate

6/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

651

Lastpage

653

Abstract

A tunable dispersion compensating filter based on a multistage optical all-pass filter with a microelectromechanical (MEM) actuated variable reflector and a thermally tuned cavity is described. A two-stage device was demonstrated with a tuning range of /spl plusmn/100 ps/nm, 50-GHz passband and a group delay ripple less than /spl plusmn/3 ps. The device has negligible polarization dependence and is suitable for single or multiple channel compensation. An off-axis, two-fiber package with an excess loss <2 dB/stage avoids the need for a circulator. By cascading four stages, a passband to channel spacing ratio of 0.8 is obtained that allows both 40 Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) signals to be compensated.

Keywords

all-pass filters; compensation; integrated optics; micro-optics; micromechanical devices; optical communication equipment; optical dispersion; optical losses; optical tuning; optical waveguide filters; 2 dB; 40 Gbit/s; circulator; delay ripple; excess loss; microelectromechanical actuated variable reflector; multiple channel compensation; multistage optical all-pass filter; negligible polarization dependence; nonreturn-to-zero signal compensation; return-to-zero signal compensation; single channel compensation; thermally tuned cavity; tunable dispersion compensating MEMS all-pass filter; tuning range; two-fiber package; two-stage device; Biomembranes; Delay; Micromechanical devices; Optical fiber devices; Optical fiber polarization; Optical filters; Packaging; Passband; Reflectivity; Silicon;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.849073

Filename

849073