Optical module
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:
an input port configured to receive a multiplexed optical signal;
a demultiplexer coupled to the input port and configured to generate a plurality of optical signals based on the multiplexed optical signal;
a plurality of photo-detectors for converting the plurality of optical signals into a plurality of current signals;
one or more lasers for producing one or more laser signals, the lasers being characterized by a relative intensity noise (RIN) level of less than −140 dB/Hz;
one or more optical modulators coupled to the one or more lasers via flip chips to modulate the one or more laser signals based on one or more electrical signals to form modulated optical signals;
one or more multiplexers configured to combine the modulated optical signals to obtain a combined optical signal; and
an output port coupled to the multiplexer to output the combined optical signal.
2. The device of claim 1 wherein the demultiplexer comprises one or more silicon-based delay-line interferometers (DLIs), each DLI being configured to interleave the multiplexed optical signal from one fiber into two waveguides each with a light in different wavelength.
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 the receiver lane 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 one or more DLIs, each DLI being a 2-to-1 power combiner.
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 or a NRZ 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. The device of claim 1 wherein the one or more lasers comprises DFB laser devices.
18. The device of claim 1 wherein the one or more lasers are configured to be stabilized with a thermoelectric cooler.
19. An integrated communication apparatus comprising:
a DMUX device configured to receive an incoming optical signal with 4 multiplexed wavelengths;
a transmit lane module for generating electrical signals, the transmit lane module comprising an FEC encoder;
one or more DFB laser devices for producing laser 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 comprising a PAM encoder configured to modulate the laser signals to generate modulated optical signals; and
a MUX device configured to combine the modulated optical signals and to output a combined optical signal.
20. An optical device configured on the single silicon substrate, the optical module comprising:
a demultiplexer configured to generate a plurality of de-multiplexed optical signals from a multiplexed optical signal;
a plurality of photo-detectors configured to convert the plurality of de-multiplexed optical signals with different wavelengths respectively into corresponding electrical signals;
a transmit lane module comprising at least a CDR module and an encoder 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.