Measurements of very low bit-error rates of optical switches based on semiconductor optical amplifiers

Author

Zhou, Jianying ; Chrostowski, Jacek ; Myslinski, Piotr

Author_Institution

Inst. for Nat. Meas. Stand., Nat. Res. Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont., Canada

Volume

9

Issue

8

fYear

1997

Firstpage

1131

Lastpage

1133

Abstract

Very low bit-error-rate (BER) performance of an 8/spl times/8 nonblocking optical switch based on semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) was measured using a simple extrapolation technique and optical disturbance. The results show the impact of SOA´s amplified spontaneous emission and dynamic gain saturation on the low BER (<10/sup -12/) behavior of the optical switching system. The input dynamic ranges of 24 dB with a BER at 10/sup -15/ and of 20 dB with a BER at 10/sup -30/ were achieved for the bit rate at 1.0 Gb/s with less than 2-dB power penalty.

Keywords

electro-optical switches; extrapolation; measurement errors; optical testing; optical transmitters; semiconductor device testing; semiconductor lasers; superradiance; 1 Gbit/s; 8/spl times/8 nonblocking optical switch; amplified spontaneous emission; dynamic gain saturation; extrapolation technique; input dynamic ranges; low BER; optical disturbance; optical switches; optical switching system; power penalty; semiconductor optical amplifiers; very low bit-error rates; Bit error rate; Bit rate; Dynamic range; Extrapolation; Optical saturation; Optical switches; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Spontaneous emission; Stimulated emission; Switching systems;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.605525

Filename

605525