Including Polarization Patents (Class 398/184)
  • Patent number: 8073338
    Abstract: A modulation method for optical communication comprises the step of generating an optical signal modulated between a plurality of different states of polarization and between different phase states. The plurality of states of polarization comprises first states of polarization. The first states of polarization define a single great circle on the Poincaré sphere. The method is characterized in that the plurality of states of polarization further comprise one or more second states of polarization located outside the great circle. Such additional second states of polarization increase the symbol alphabet.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Date of Patent: December 6, 2011
    Assignee: Alcatel Lucent
    Inventor: Henning Buelow
  • Patent number: 8068742
    Abstract: A high-speed optical transmitter comprises multiple digital lanes that are provided to a bank of digital-to-analog converters. The analog signals are then used to Phase Shift Keyed (PSK) modulation using a Chirp Managed Laser (CML)-based transmitter, and potentially using dual polarization. A corresponding optical receiver receives the sequence of optical signals at a demodulator. For each polarization, the demodulator includes a corresponding demodulation channel that is configured to demodulate that polarization component of the optical signal into one or more signal components. Each of these signal components is converted into a corresponding digital signal using a corresponding analog-to-digital converter. In the case of higher-order PSK modulation (e.g., 8PSK or higher), for each polarization, the analog converter has a lower sampling rate than for QPSK modulation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 10, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2011
    Assignee: Finisar Corporation
    Inventors: Christopher R. Cole, Daniel Mahgerefteh, The'Linh Nguyen, Andrew C. Singer, Naresh Ramnath Shanbhag
  • Patent number: 8064544
    Abstract: In the field of communication and transmission, a method and a device for receiving an OPFDM-DQPSK signal are provided. The device includes a power splitter, adapted to split the OPFDM-DQPSK signal into two beams of signals; a polarization beam splitter (PBS), adapted to splitting one of the two beams of signals into a first signal and a second signal; a demultiplexer (Demux), adapted to demultiplex the other beam of signal to obtain a third signal and a fourth signal; two delayers, adapted to delay the third signal and the fourth signal respectively; a first frequency-mixing receiving module, adapted to perform frequency-mixing receiving on the first signal and the delayed third signal; a second frequency-mixing receiving module, adapted to perform frequency-mixing receiving on the second signal and the delayed fourth signal; and a decision recovery module, adapted to recover four logical sequences by performing decision on the four electrical signals.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2009
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Liangchuan Li, Chan Zhao, Lun Wei
  • Patent number: 8064775
    Abstract: A method includes generating at least two lightwave carriers from a lightwave source, the carriers having a wavelength spacing, creating an up-subchannel and a down-subchannel orthogonal to one another and spaced apart based on the fixed wavelength spacing from modulations of the lightwave carriers according to respective up-converted OFDM signals that are carrier suppressed, and combining one lightwave from the up-subchannel and one lightwave from the down-subchannel into an optical channel for transmission over an optical fiber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 31, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignees: NEC Laboratories America, Inc., NEC Corporation
    Inventors: Jianjun Yu, Lei Xu, Philip Ji, Ting Wang, Dayou Qian, Yutaka Yano
  • Patent number: 8064767
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method of optical communications that utilize coherent detection technique and optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for phase encoded data transmission. In particular the invention addresses a device and method for digital polarization compensation of optical signals with up to 100 Gb/s transmission rate received via an optical link. The polarization compensation operates in two modes: acquisition mode and tracking mode. The polarization recovery is performed at the receiver side using the received digital signal conversion into frequency domain and separate reconstruction of the polarization state in each spectral component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 11, 2008
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2011
    Assignee: CeLight, Inc.
    Inventors: Isaac Shpantzer, Alexander Genusov, Yehouda Meiman, Jacob Khurgin
  • Publication number: 20110274441
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method in a transmitting node for transmitting a modulated optical carrier signal over an optical channel in an optical communications network to a receiving node. The method enables full use of the polarisation domain within a Poincaré sphere when modulating the optical carrier signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 6, 2011
    Publication date: November 10, 2011
    Inventor: Anders Djupsjöbacka
  • Patent number: 8045855
    Abstract: The present invention provides systems and methods for the mitigation of PMD impairments in fiber optic links. The present invention utilizes synchronous polarization modulation and digital control of polarization modulation, instead of independent polarization modulators and analog control used in the current state of art. Also, the present invention utilizes a feedback loop to avoid identified bad polarization states instead of a random open loop operation. Further, the present invention includes a mechanism to continually update polarization states based on pre-corrected FEC error analysis from data receivers. Additionally, the present invention includes a mechanism for collecting and correlating error feedback signals from multiple geographically-diverse network nodes. Advantageously, the present invention provides a cost-effective and efficient way to implement mitigation of PMD impairments, while using only a small fraction of the FEC error correction capability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 6, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2011
    Assignee: Ciena Corporation
    Inventor: Michael Y. Frankel
  • Patent number: 8036536
    Abstract: An optical transmitter apparatus for use in an optical communications network has a polarization dithering unit, an optical transmitter unit, and a transmission fiber. The polarization dithering unit is connected in series between an output of the optical transmitter unit and the transmission fiber.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 11, 2011
    Assignee: Ericsson AB
    Inventors: Ernesto Ciaramella, Emma Matarazzo
  • Patent number: 8032025
    Abstract: Systems and techniques for optical communications based on polarization division multiplexing are described.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 22, 2008
    Date of Patent: October 4, 2011
    Assignee: Opnext Subsystems, Inc.
    Inventors: Edem Ibragimov, Theodore J. Schmidt
  • Publication number: 20110188867
    Abstract: A phase shift keyed demodulator includes first and second beam splitters, a first optical path, a second optical path, and a wavelength tuner. The first beam splitter splits an input signal into first and second output signals. The second beam splitter splits each first and second output signal into a transmitted signal and a reflected signal. The first optical path includes an optical path of each transmitted signal from a beam splitting surface to a reflector and back to the beam splitting surface. The second optical path includes an optical path of each reflected signal from the beam splitting surface to a mirror surface and back to the beam splitting surface. A path difference introduces a delay between the transmitted signal and the reflected signal. The wavelength tuner tunes the demodulator to a predetermined central wavelength and introduces a phase shift between first and second transmitted signals.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 23, 2010
    Publication date: August 4, 2011
    Applicant: FINISAR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Huiping Li, Xiaolin Chen, Fan Chen, Fahua Lan, Kevin Dapend Zhang
  • Publication number: 20110176816
    Abstract: An optical transmission apparatus according to the present invention comprises: a plurality of optical modulating sections serially connected to each other via optical fibers; driving sections corresponding to the optical modulating sections; delay amount varying sections that provide variable delay amounts for modulating signals to be input to the driving sections, to adjust timing between drive signals to be provided for the optical modulating sections; temperature monitoring sections that monitor the temperature of each of the optical fibers and the like; and a delay amount control section that controls the delay amount in each of the delay amount varying sections based on the monitored temperatures.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 3, 2011
    Publication date: July 21, 2011
    Applicants: FUJITSU LIMITED, YOKOGAWA ELECTRIC CORPORATION
    Inventors: Hiroki OOI, George Ishikawa, Daisuke Tanimura, Hirotoshi Kodaka
  • Publication number: 20110176815
    Abstract: The present disclosure provides a multi-carrier optical transmitter, receiver, transceiver, and associated methods utilizing offset quadrature amplitude modulation thereby achieving significant increases in spectral efficiency, with negligible sensitivity penalties. In an exemplary embodiment, an optical transmitter includes circuitry configured to generate a plurality of optical subcarriers, a plurality of data signals for each of the plurality of subcarriers, and a plurality of modulator circuits for each of the plurality of subcarriers, wherein each of the plurality of modulator circuits includes circuitry configured to offset an in-phase component from a quadrature component of one of the plurality data signals by one-half baud period.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2010
    Publication date: July 21, 2011
    Inventors: Michael Y. FRANKEL, Christian Bourget, Michael J. Wingrove
  • Patent number: 7983570
    Abstract: Efficient apparatus, methods, systems and devices to generate, transmit and detect optical differential polarization-phase-shift keying signals are disclosed for high spectral efficiency optical communication systems. It includes an electrical encoder and an optical encoder for generation of differentially encoded polarization-phase modulated optical signals and optical demodulators and balanced detectors for detection of the optical signals. The optical signals are transmitted through optical fiber links or free space. The electrical encoder maps independent data channels into differentially-encoded data sequences. In the optical encoder, the encoded data sequences from the electrical encoder drive optical modulators to generate differentially-encoded polarization-phase modulated optical signals at a symbol rate equal to the bit rate of each input data channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 13, 2009
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2011
    Assignee: University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
    Inventors: Yan Han, Guifang Li
  • Publication number: 20110170873
    Abstract: Frequency-locked optical comb sources are provided that utilize recirculating frequency shifting based on frequency conversion in a modulator, together with a filter. The filter may be a wavelength notch filter and include a plurality of notches. An example apparatus includes a coupler, an I/Q modulator, and a filter. A first input of the coupler receives a first input optical carrier having a first frequency, and a second input of the coupler re receives a set of frequency-shifted carriers from the filter. The input optical carrier may have a plurality of frequencies. The I/Q modulator shifts the frequency of a first output of the coupler. The filter filters modulated output from the I/Q modulator thereby limiting the frequency-shifted carriers to be within an optical bandwidth. A second output of the coupler provides a plurality of frequency-locked carriers containing the first input optical carrier and the set of frequency-shifted carriers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 11, 2010
    Publication date: July 14, 2011
    Inventors: Xiang Liu, Chandrasekhar Sethumadhavan, Robert William Tkach
  • Publication number: 20110044702
    Abstract: A polarization multiplexed optical transmitter includes first and second modulation units, combiner, phase controller, and signal controller. The first and second modulation units generate first and second modulated optical signals, respectively. The first and second modulation units include first and second phase shifter to give phase difference between optical paths of corresponding Mach-Zehnder interferometer, respectively. The combiner generates polarization multiplexed optical signal from the first and second modulated optical signals. The phase controller controls the phase difference by the first phase shifter to a target value and the phase difference by the second phase shifter to a value shifted by ? from the target value. The signal controller controls operation state of at least one of the first and second modulation units based on optical intensity waveform of the polarization multiplexed optical signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 11, 2010
    Publication date: February 24, 2011
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Noriaki MIZUGUCHI, Yuichi AKIYAMA
  • Publication number: 20110026935
    Abstract: An optical signal transmitter includes: first outer modulator to generate first modulated optical signal, the first outer modulator including a pair of optical paths and a first phase shifter to give phase difference to the pair of optical paths; second outer modulator to generate second modulated optical signal, the second outer modulator including a pair of optical paths and a second phase shifter to give phase difference to the pair of optical paths; combiner to generate polarization multiplexed optical signal by combining the first and second modulated optical signals; phase controller to control the phase difference by the first phase shifter to A??? and control the phase difference by the second phase shifter to A+??; and power controller to control at least one of the first and second outer modulators based on AC component of the polarization multiplexed optical signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 19, 2010
    Publication date: February 3, 2011
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Yuichi Akiyama, Noriaki Mizuguchi
  • Patent number: 7865085
    Abstract: In an optical transmission system by frequency-division multiplexing, the interference due to distortions of a first signal against a second signal can be reduced. In the optical transmission system where a modulated optical signal by the first signal is further modulated with the second signal for transmission, distortions of the first signal corresponding to a frequency band of the second signal is extracted. The extracted signal is phase-inverted and then adjusted in phase and amplitude with respect to the distortions of the first signal to obtain a correction signal. By intensity-modulating the first signal containing the distortions by the correction signal, the distortions of the first signal against the second signal can be cancelled out. Alternatively, by intensity-modulating the first signal containing the distortions by a combined signal of the correction signal and the second signal, the distortions of the first signal against the second signal can be cancelled out.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 10, 2005
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
    Inventors: Koji Kikushima, Satoshi Ikeda
  • Patent number: 7865080
    Abstract: In order to reduce mutual interferences between POLMUX and signals, the signals are transmitted with differed to each other carrying signals, thereby making it possible to obtain the circular polarization of each resulting POLMUX signal. Each second POLMUX signal is transmissible with an opposite circular polarization. In order to reduce also interferences when only one modulated data signal is transmitted through a POLMUX channel, a polarization plane of modulated data signals of each second POLMUX channel is turned at 45°. In a variant, polarization multiplex signals are produces and the resulting polarizations thereof in adjacent channels are perpendicular to each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2011
    Assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Nancy Hecker, Werner Paetsch, Dirk van den Borne
  • Patent number: 7853153
    Abstract: The present invention is to provide an optical modulating system for generating a signal of a frequency (f0+2fm) and a signal of a frequency (f0?2fm) and suppressing a signal of a frequency (f0) by a DSB-SC modulator. A fourth harmonic generating system for solving the above problem comprises a first DSB-SC modulator (2) a second DSB-SC modulator (3) and a signal control section (5) for controlling a modulating signal from a signal source (4) for generating modulating signals applied to the first and second DSB-SC modulators (2,3) so that a lower side-band signal (f0) generated by modulating the upper side-band signal of the DSB-SC modulator (2) by the DSB-SC modulator (3) and an upper side-band signal (f0) generated by modulating the lower side-band signal of the DSB-SC modulator (2) by the DSB-SC modulator (3) cancel each other.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 8, 2006
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2010
    Assignee: National Institute of Information and Communications Technology
    Inventors: Tetsuya Kawanishi, Masayuki Izutsu, Takahide Sakamoto, Masahiro Tsuchiya
  • Publication number: 20100303469
    Abstract: In various embodiments, a monolithic integrated transmitter, comprising an on-chip laser source and a modulator structure capable of generating advanced modulation format signals based on amplitude and phase modulation are described.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 27, 2010
    Publication date: December 2, 2010
    Applicant: FREEDOM PHOTONICS, LLC
    Inventors: Jonathon Barton, Leif Johansson, Milan Mashanovitch
  • Patent number: 7844186
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are provided for transmitting alternate-polarization phase-shift-keyed data. The output of a laser is modulated to optically encode electronic data using phase shift keying (PSK) to generate an optical signal. An alternate polarization PSK (APol-PSK) signal is generated by alternating the polarization of the optical signal using a modulator such that successive optical bits have substantially orthogonal polarizations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2004
    Date of Patent: November 30, 2010
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventors: Christophe J. Dorrer, Alan H. Gnauck, Inuk Kang, Chongjin Xie
  • Publication number: 20100272446
    Abstract: A method of controlling a polar optical transmitter comprising a dual-branch Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator driven by a pair of independent electrical drive signals. A cost function is provided which defines a relationship between a control parameter of the optical transmitter and a power level of an output optical signal generated by the MZ modulator. A selected component of the electrical drive signals is dithered using a predetermined dither signal. A modulation depth of the output optical signal power level corresponding to the dither signal is detected, and the control parameter adjusted based on the cost function and the detection result.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2010
    Publication date: October 28, 2010
    Applicant: CIENA CORPORATION
    Inventors: James Harley, Douglas McGhan, Mohammad Sotoodeh, Anant Grewal, Mark Hawryluck
  • Publication number: 20100209120
    Abstract: An optoelectronic transmission system has a photoemitter semiconductor component and a photodetector semiconductor component. The photoemitter semiconductor component has a radiation source for converting a first electrical signal into a first electromagnetic radiation and a first polarization filter having a first polarization direction for filtering the first electromagnetic radiation. The photodetector semiconductor component has a second polarization filter having a second polarization direction for filtering a second electromagnetic radiation and a sensor element for converting a second electromagnetic radiation which has been polarized by the polarization filter into a second electrical signal. In this case, the first polarization direction of the first polarization filter is identical to the second polarization direction of the second polarization filter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 11, 2010
    Publication date: August 19, 2010
    Inventors: Jaime ESTEVEZ-GARCIA, Josef-Paul SCHAFFER
  • Patent number: 7742699
    Abstract: Two data signals are subjected to a binary differential phase modulation and transmitted as POLMUX multiplex signals. The types of modulation are selected in such a way that they are orthogonal in relation to each other and do not influence each other during the demodulation of the signals. There is thus no need to regulate the polarization on the receiving side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 20, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2010
    Assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co KG
    Inventors: Stefano Calabro, Ernst-Dieter Schmidt
  • Patent number: 7715730
    Abstract: The polarization-multiplexed signal contains two data signals that are orthogonally polarized in relation to one another. Their carrier signals are derived from the same source and thus have the same wavelength. The phase difference between the carrier signals, is adjusted or regulated in such a way that it corresponds to 90°. The phase difference of the carrier signals permits the susceptibility to polarization mode dispersion to be significantly reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 27, 2005
    Date of Patent: May 11, 2010
    Assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co. KG
    Inventors: Nancy Hecker, Dirk van den Borne
  • Patent number: 7706694
    Abstract: A system for and method of processing complex signals encoded into quantum states is presented. According to an embodiment of the invention, polarized components of a pump laser beam are separated and respectively modulated with first and second signals. The modulated polarized components are directed to adjacent non-linear crystals with optical axes aligned at right angles to each-other. Information regarding at least one of the first and second signals is then derived from measurements of coincidence events.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 25, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2010
    Assignee: General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, Inc.
    Inventor: Richard Freeling
  • Patent number: 7697848
    Abstract: A wireless communication system, a wireless transmitting apparatus, and a wireless receiving apparatus which can be applied to all types of light sources and can be applied to a variety of fields, provided with a medium forming an information transmission source, a general light source made of for example a lamp or the sun or another natural light source or artificial light source, a wireless transmitting apparatus for making the polarization of the light from the light source uniform and controlling the polarization plane of an infrared ray, visible ray, UV ray, or other light (modulating the light in polarization) so as to superimpose other information invisible to the human eye on visual information due to general reflected light and transmitting the same as an optical wireless signal, and a wireless receiving apparatus for receiving the optical wireless signal transmitted from the wireless transmitting apparatus and able to determine a change in orientation of the polarization plane of the light as inform
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 30, 2006
    Date of Patent: April 13, 2010
    Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
    Inventors: Tohru Sunaga, Yasuyuki Irie
  • Publication number: 20100080571
    Abstract: An optical signal transmitter includes first and second modulation units, a combiner, and a control unit. The first and second modulation units generate first and second modulated optical signals, respectively. The combiner combines the first and second modulated optical signals to generate a polarization multiplexed optical signal. The control unit controls at least one of the first and second modulation units so that the optical powers of the first and second modulated optical signals become approximately equal to each other.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 30, 2009
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Applicant: FUJITSU LIMITED
    Inventors: Yuichi Akiyama, Hideyuki Miyata, Takeshi Hoshida
  • Publication number: 20100080394
    Abstract: In order to facilitate alignment of a QKD transmitter and QKD receiver, the transmitter is provided with a retro-reflector for returning to the receiver a photon beam originating at the latter. The transmitter is arranged to polarization modulate the retro-reflected beam. The transmitter is provided both with an intensity detector for generating an indication of retro-reflected photon intensity, and an intensity-dependent controller for controlling the QKD transmitter in dependence on the detected photon intensity. In one embodiment, this control involves aborting operation of the QKD transmitter upon an unexpectedly high photon intensity being detected; in another embodiment, the intensity indication is used to control the attenuation of the retro-reflected beam so as stabilize the average retro-reflected photon count per unit time.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 1, 2008
    Publication date: April 1, 2010
    Inventors: Keith Harrison, William Munro, Timothy Spiller, Michael Tan, Joanna Duligall, Radu Ionicioiu
  • Patent number: 7689125
    Abstract: An optical processing method includes: receiving an optical signal from an optical system, wherein the optical signal is distorted by frequency-dependent polarization effects in the optical system; spatially dispersing frequency components of the distorted optical signal on a spatial light modulator (SLM); and independently adjusting the polarization transfer matrix of multiple regions of the SLM to reduce the distortion of the optical signal. A related optical processing method includes: providing a precompensation signal indicative of frequency-dependent polarization effects in a downstream optical system; spatially dispersing frequency components of an optical signal on a spatial light modulator (SLM); and independently adjusting the polarization transfer matrix of multiple regions of the SLM to at least partially precompensate the optical signal for distortions caused by the frequency-dependent polarization effects in the downstream optical system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2008
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2010
    Assignee: Purdue Research Foundation
    Inventor: Andrew M. Weiner
  • Patent number: 7672598
    Abstract: A carrier signal extraction system for suppressing and extracting a carrier signal component and transmitting a double sideband component includes a polarized light source for transmitting a polarized light signal output; a polarization modulator with a first input coupled to the polarized light signal output and a second input for adding a modulation signal to the polarized light signal, thereby generating a polarization modulated light output; and a polarizing element having an input coupled to the polarization modulated light output for suppressing and extracting the carrier signal component and preferentially transmitting a double sideband component of the polarization modulated light output.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 23, 2007
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2010
    Assignee: The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy
    Inventor: Anthony L Campillo
  • Patent number: 7643760
    Abstract: Efficient apparatus, methods, systems and devices to generate, transmit and detect optical differential polarization-phase-shift keying signals are disclosed for high spectral efficiency optical communication systems. It includes an electrical encoder and an optical encoder for generation of differentially encoded polarization-phase modulated optical signals and optical demodulators and balanced detectors for detection of the optical signals. The optical signals are transmitted through optical fiber links or free space. The electrical encoder maps independent data channels into differentially-encoded data sequences. In the optical encoder, the encoded data sequences from the electrical encoder drive optical modulators to generate differentially-encoded polarization-phase modulated optical signals at a symbol rate equal to the bit rate of each input data channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 3, 2006
    Date of Patent: January 5, 2010
    Assignee: University of Central Florida Research Foundation, Inc.
    Inventors: Yan Han, Guifang Li
  • Publication number: 20090317090
    Abstract: A system and method are provided for controlling time delay in a multichannel optical transport network transmission device. The method accepts a pair of 2n-phase shift keying (2nPSK) modulated signals via Ix and Qx electrical signal paths, where n>1, and a pair of 2p-PSK modulated signals via Iy and Qy electrical signal paths where p>1. A voltage V1 on the Ix signal path is compared with a voltage V2 on the Qx signal path, and a VOx voltage in generated, which is minimized by adjusting time delay modules in the Ix and Qx signals paths. Likewise, a voltage V3 (Iy) is compared with a voltage V4 (Qy), and a VOy voltage is generated and minimized. Subsequent to minimizing VOx and VOy, the sum of V1 and V2 (V12) is compared with the sum of V3 and V4 (V34), and a VOxy voltage is generated and minimized.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 20, 2008
    Publication date: December 24, 2009
    Inventors: Keith Conroy, Omer Acikel, Francesco Caggioni
  • Publication number: 20090310977
    Abstract: A transmitter on an integrated circuit chip is disclosed that employs a laser, modulator, and a dispersion compensator module and a modulator for overcoming chromatic dispersion and polarization dependent loss effects. With the present invention, the dispersion compensator module is placed on a chip, either integrated or monolithic, for operation with a laser and a modulator without the need to compensate for dispersion within a separate unit that is not part of the chip. The dispersion compensator module can be implemented, for example, with a ring resonator, an etalon or a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. In a first aspect of the invention, the optical transmitter module of the present invention provides a cost-effective solution for upgrading from an existing optical network to a faster optical network, such as upgrading from a 2.5 Gbps to a 10 Gbps network.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 18, 2009
    Publication date: December 17, 2009
    Inventors: Giovanni Barbarossa, Roger A. Hajjar
  • Patent number: 7620326
    Abstract: The invention relates to a method for transmitting at least one first and second data signal in polarization multiplex. To this end, the invention provides that, in a first step, the first data signal is, on the transmit side, modulated to a sideband of a first carrier signal for generating a first sideband-modulated signal, and the second data signal is modulated to a sideband of a second carrier signal in order to generate a second sideband-modulated signal. In a second step, the first and second sideband-modulated signal are subsequently polarized orthogonal to one another, combined to form an optical multiplex signal and transmitted. In a third step, the optical multiplex signal is, on the receive side, guided via a polarization control element to a polarization splitter that separates the transmitted optical multiplex signal into the first and second sideband-modulated signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2003
    Date of Patent: November 17, 2009
    Assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co KG
    Inventor: Christoph Glingener
  • Publication number: 20090257755
    Abstract: A modulation method for optical communication comprises the step of generating an optical signal modulated between a plurality of different states of polarization and between different phase states. The plurality of states of polarization comprises first states of polarization. The first states of polarization define a single great circle on the Poincaré sphere. The method is characterized in that the plurality of states of polarization further comprise one or more second states of polarization located outside the great circle. Such additional second states of polarization increase the symbol alphabet.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 2, 2009
    Publication date: October 15, 2009
    Inventor: Henning Buelow
  • Patent number: 7599627
    Abstract: An optical homodyne communication system and method in which a side carrier is transmitted along with data bands in an optical data signal, and upon reception, the side carrier is boosted, shifted to the center of the data bands, and its polarization state is matched to the polarization state of the respective data bands to compensate for polarization mode dispersion during transmission. By shifting a boosted side carrier to the center of the data bands, and by simultaneously compensating for the effects of polarization mode dispersion, the provided system and method simulate the advantages of homodyne reception using a local oscillator. The deleterious effects of chromatic dispersion on the data signals within the data bands are also compensated for by applying a corrective function to the data signals which precisely counteracts the effects of chromatic dispersion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 31, 2001
    Date of Patent: October 6, 2009
    Assignee: Teradvance Communications, LLC
    Inventors: Marcel F. C. Schemmann, Zoran Maricevic, Antonije R. Djordjevic, Darby Racey
  • Patent number: 7593647
    Abstract: An optical transmitter has a resonance wavelength characteristic that varies with the refractive index of the optical transmitter. The optical transmitter receives a narrow band injected wavelength signal from an incoherent light source. The controller substantially matches a resonant wavelength of the optical transmitter to the wavelength of the injected wavelength signal by changing the refractive index of the optical transmitter to substantially match the resonant wavelength of the optical transmitter and the wavelength of the injected wavelength signal. A detector measures a parameter of the optical transmitter to provide a feedback signal to a controller to determine when the resonant wavelength of the optical transmitter and the wavelength of the injected wavelength signal are substantially matched.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 22, 2003
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2009
    Assignee: Novera Optics, Inc.
    Inventors: Chang-Hee Lee, Kwang-Uk Chu, Bong-Soo Kim
  • Patent number: 7583894
    Abstract: Methods and apparatus are described for modulating an optical signal using electroabsorption in conjunction with an optical interferometer. Phase-shift keying modulation can be achieved with lower amplitude modulator drive signals than conventional methods by splitting the signal to be modulated into multiple optical modes and interferometrically combining the modes after modulating at least one of the modes with an EAM. Using the present invention, the extinction ratio performance of ASK can be significantly improved for a given drive voltage or a desired extinction ratio can be achieved with a substantially lower drive voltage. Hence, the elecro-optic bandwidth of EAMs can be enhanced by overcoming the trade-off relationship between extinction ratio and bandwidth. Furthermore, the present invention can be used to generate other modulation formats, such as QPSK or QAM, with much lower drive voltages, thereby reducing the cost and power consumption of the high-speed drive electronics for the modulation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2006
    Date of Patent: September 1, 2009
    Assignee: Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc.
    Inventor: Inuk Kang
  • Publication number: 20090208225
    Abstract: A small-scale VOA system includes a polarization rotator, a voltage multiplier circuit, and at least one transistor. The polarization rotator can be positioned within a TOSA along the emission axis of a corresponding optical signal source in addition to one or more polarizers. A microcontroller provides a first low voltage control signal to a voltage multiplier to generate a large voltage DC signal which is provided to the transistor. The transistor modulates the large voltage signal with a second control signal from the microcontroller to generate a large voltage AC signal for driving the polarization rotator. The polarization rotation of the polarization rotator can be altered depending on the applied large-voltage AC signal. As a result, the polarization rotator and one or more polarizers can variably attenuate signals emitted by the optical signal source or act as a shutter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2008
    Publication date: August 20, 2009
    Applicant: FINISAR CORPORATION
    Inventors: Henry M. Daghighian, Kevin McCallion
  • Publication number: 20090195860
    Abstract: An optical modulator includes, a first polarization separation and combination portion, a second polarization separation and combination portion, a first polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber, a second polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber, a third polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber of which a first end is coupled with the second input and output terminal of the second polarization separation and combination portion, the third polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber including a first optical coupler, to which control light that is linearly polarized light is input, a fourth polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber of which a first end is coupled with the third input and output terminal of the second polarization separation and combination portion; and a first polarization plane conversion portion that optically communicates with a second end of the third polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber and a second end of the fourth polarization plane-maintaining optical fiber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 6, 2008
    Publication date: August 6, 2009
    Applicant: Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Shin Arahira, Hitoshi Murai
  • Publication number: 20090185810
    Abstract: An optical beam synthesizer formed on a single chip is provided. It allows M-PSK modulation for both beam polarizations. The synthesizer comprises an optical pulse shaper and two M-PSK modulators for each polarization. A single-chip-integrated analyzer is provided to receive a modulated data. Analyzer comprises a pulse shaper operating as an optical sampler and a pair of 90-degrees optical hybrids for each polarization. Each optical hybrids mix incoming portions of the modulated beams with portions of the local oscillator beams. Both the synthesizer and the analyzer include a set of mirrors located on the back and front surfaces of the chips to create compact designs. The output beams from the analyzer are detected by a set of balanced photodiodes, and the data is recovered. It is another object of the invention to provide a communication system for data transmission having the synthesizer and the analyzer.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 27, 2009
    Publication date: July 23, 2009
    Inventors: Arkady Kaplan, Isaac Shpantzer
  • Patent number: 7561806
    Abstract: A method and system is disclosed for making timing alignment for a data transmission system, the method comprising providing a reference clock signal with a first frequency to a multiplexer through a phase shifter, generating a multiplexed signal with a second frequency by the multiplexer, wherein the second frequency follows the first frequency and is higher than the first frequency by a predetermined proportion, sending the multiplexed signal to a modulator, and phase shifting the reference clock signal by the phase shifter before the reference clock signal is provided to the multiplexer, wherein a timing of the multiplexed signal at the second frequency level can be adjusted by adjusting a timing of the reference clock signal at the lower first frequency level.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 1, 2006
    Date of Patent: July 14, 2009
    Assignee: FutureWei Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Yu Sheng Bai
  • Patent number: 7546040
    Abstract: A fiber optical system (10) for transmitting an optical signal comprises an optical fiber line (1) with a plurality of successively arranged polarization scramblers (6a to 6c) for polarization modulation of the optical signal transmitted through the optical fiber line (1) and a reference frequency signal (11) which synchronizes scrambling frequencies of all of the polarization scramblers (6a to 6c) to a common reference frequency.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 12, 2005
    Date of Patent: June 9, 2009
    Assignee: ALCATEL
    Inventor: Henning Bülow
  • Patent number: 7536112
    Abstract: An optical transmission system which provides bandwidth restricted optical signal comprises an input terminal (10) for accepting an electrical binary signal, an amplifier (12) for amplifying said electrical binary signal to the level requested for operating an electrical-optical converter (16) such as a Mach Zehnder light modulator, a bandwidth restriction means (14) which is for instance a low pass filter for restricting bandwidth of said electrical binary signal, and an electrical-optical conversion means (16) such as a Mach Zehnder light modulator for converting electrical signal to optical signal. Because of the location of the low pass filter (14) between an output of the amplifier (12) and the Mach Zehnder light modulator (16), the amplifier (12) may operate in saturation region to provide high level output signal enough for operating the Mach Zehnder light modulator, and a signal shaped by the low pass filter (14) is applied to the Mach Zehnder light modulator (16) with excellent waveform.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 28, 2001
    Date of Patent: May 19, 2009
    Assignee: Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation
    Inventors: Kazushige Yonenaga, Yutaka Miyamoto, Akihiko Matsuura
  • Patent number: 7509054
    Abstract: Binary signals are converted at the transmission end into two optical signals which are combined into a polarization multiplex signal and are then transmitted. The transmitted polarization multiplex signal is divided at the receiving end into two polarized signal parts which are converted in a linear manner into orthogonal electrical components and are supplied to a multidimensional filter. Said multidimensional filter replaces a polarization controller, restores the signal values that correspond to the signals at the transmission end, and compensates signal distortions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2003
    Date of Patent: March 24, 2009
    Assignee: Nokia Siemens Networks GmbH & Co KG
    Inventors: Stefano Calabro, Erich Gottwald, Nancy Hecker, Georg Sebald, Bernhard Spinnler
  • Patent number: 7486897
    Abstract: A polarization duobinary optical transmitter is disclosed. The transmitter includes a precoder for coding an electric signal and a light source for generating continuous light. The transmitter also includes a chirped-free modulator for generating an NRZ signal including first and second polarization light beams orthogonal to each other by modulating the light with the electric signal and a band-pass filter for limiting neighbor frequency bands between the first and second polarization light beams.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 9, 2006
    Date of Patent: February 3, 2009
    Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
    Inventors: Hoon Kim, Seong-Taek Hwang
  • Patent number: 7483642
    Abstract: A receiver for an OTDM/PDM pulse train (10) in which the pulses (12) have alternating polarizations (P1, P2) has a polarization insensitive optical switch (16; 161, 162, 163, 164) for isolating optical pulses (10?) within the pulse train (10), and a polarization selective element (17) for separating from the isolated pulses (10?) at least one component that has a single polarization. This allows to considerable relax the constraints posed on the switch since components in the isolated pulses that result from interchannel interference can, at least to a large extent, be eliminated by the subsequent polarization selective element (17).
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 31, 2003
    Date of Patent: January 27, 2009
    Assignee: Alcatel
    Inventors: Michael Schmidt, Eugen Lach
  • Publication number: 20090022498
    Abstract: In the transmitting apparatus, phase modulation means phase-modulates a signal light from a signal source based on data. Polarization modulation means polarization-modulates the signal light which is phase-modulated by the phase modulation means so that the polarization directions of temporally adjacent unit data are orthogonal to each other. In the receiving apparatus, interference means causes the signal light transmitted from the transmitting apparatus to interfere with a signal light such that the signal light is delayed by an even number of unit data. Intensity detecting means detects the intensity of the signal light obtained by interference by the interference means to detect data.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 18, 2008
    Publication date: January 22, 2009
    Inventor: MAKOTO SHIBUTANI
  • Publication number: 20080292321
    Abstract: An optical transmitter apparatus for use in an optical communications network has a polarization dithering unit, an optical transmitter unit, and a transmission fiber. The polarization dithering unit is connected in series between an output of the optical transmitter unit and the transmission fiber.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 23, 2008
    Publication date: November 27, 2008
    Inventors: Ernesto Ciaramella, Emma Matarazzo