Optical module
View Patent ↗An integrated apparatus with optical/electrical interfaces and protocol converter on a single silicon substrate. The apparatus includes an optical module comprising one or more modulators respectively coupled with one or more laser devices for producing a first optical signal to an optical interface and one or more photodetectors for detecting a second optical signal from the optical interface to generate a current signal. Additionally, the apparatus includes a transmit lane module coupled between the optical module and an electrical interface to receive a first electric signal from the electrical interface and provide a framing protocol for driving the one or more modulators. Furthermore, the apparatus includes a receive lane module coupled between the optical module and the electrical interface to process the current signal to send a second electric signal to the electrical interface.
1. An optical communication device integrated on a single silicon substrate, the device comprising:
a demultiplexer configured to receive a multiplexed optical signal and generates a plurality of optical signals;
a plurality of photo-detectors for converting the plurality of optical signals into a plurality of current signals;
one or more DFB laser devices for producing optical signals, the DFB laser devices being characterized by a relative intensity noise (RIN) level of less than −140 dB/Hz, the one or more DFB laser devices being coupled to a cooling module;
one or more optical modulators configured to modulate the optical signals based on one or more electrical signals; and
a multiplexer configured to combine the modulated optical signals and to output the combined optical signals.
2. The device of claim 1 wherein the first multiplexer comprises a silicon-based delay-line interferometer (DLI).
3. The device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of photo-detectors is configured to convert the plurality of optical signals with different wavelengths.
4. The device of claim 1 wherein the plurality of optical signals comprises individual lights with a predetermined channel spacing.
5. The device of claim 1 further comprising a control module.
6. The device of claim 1 further comprising a receiver lane module.
7. The device of claim 6 wherein module comprises a CDR, an FEC, a DSP, and/or a TIA.
8. The device of claim 1 further comprising a transmit lane module.
9. The device of claim 8 wherein the transmit lane module comprises a CDR, an FEEC, an ENC, and/or a DRV.
10. The device of claim 1 wherein the multiplexer comprises a DLI.
11. The device of claim 1 further comprises an electrical interface.
12. The device of claim 1 further comprising a silicon-based Mach Zehnder modulator.
13. The device of claim 12 wherein the silicon-based Mach Zehnder modulator operates in a carrier depletion mode.
14. The device of claim 1 wherein each of the plurality of optical signals is in a PAM-N format.
15. The device of claim 1 wherein the optical signals are associated with one or more wavelengths configured in a coarse wavelength division multiplex (CWDM) grid.
16. The device of claim 1 wherein the optical signals are associated with one or more wavelengths configured in a dense wavelength division multiplex (DWDM) grid.
17. An integrated communication apparatus formed on a single substrate, the apparatus comprising:
a demultiplexer configured to receive a multiplexed optical signal;
a transmit lane module for generating electrical signals, the transmit lane module comprising an FEC encoder;
one or more DFB laser devices for producing optical signals based on the electrical signals, the DFB laser devices being characterized by a relative intensity noise (RIN) level of less than −140 dB/Hz;
one or more optical modulators configured to modulate the optical signals based on one or more electrical signals; and
a multiplexer configured to combine the modulated optical signals and to output the combined optical signals.
18. An optical device configured on the single silicon substrate, the optical module comprising:
a demultiplexer configured to generate de-multiplex optical signal from a multiplexed optical signal;
a plurality of photo-detectors, the photo-detectors being configured to convert de-multiplexed optical signal with different wavelengths into corresponding electrical signals;
a transmit lane module for generating electrical signals; and
one or more DFB laser devices for producing optical signals based on the electrical signals, the DFB laser devices being characterized by a relative intensity noise (RIN) level of less than −140 dB/Hz for PAM N communication.
19. The device of claim 18 further wherein the transmit lane module further comprises a CDR module.
20. The device of claim 19 wherein the transmit lane module further comprises an encoder module.