Compact 160-Gb/s demultiplexer using a single-stage electrically gated electroabsorption modulator

Direct 160-10-Gb/s demultiplexing using a single-stage electrically gated electroabsorption modulator is reported for the first time. The drive signal consists of two mixed microwave tones used to reduce the gating window width to under 5.7 ps for both TE and TM modes. Error-free operation is obtained without an observed error floor. This single-stage design is compared to a dual-stage demultiplexer (160-40 and 40-10 Gb/s) and experimental results show that the power penalty is lower for the single-stage demultiplexer, illustrating both the performance and complexity advantages of the new design.