Digital transmission experiment with monolithic 4*4 InGaAsP/InP laser amplifier gate switch array

Digital transmission experiments at 2.488 Gbit/s involving a monolithic 4*4 semiconductor laser amplifier gate switch array operating at around 0 dB fibre-to-fibre gain have been performed. Receiver power penalties less than 1 dB are reported for a switch input power range in excess of 10 dB. Results on switch saturation include a switch signal output power, coupled to the output fibre, of -5 dBm for 3 dB gain compression of the 4*4 switch.