Silicon photonics multicarrier optical transceiver
Disclosed herein are techniques, methods, structures and apparatus that provide a silicon photonics multicarrier optical transceiver wherein both the transmitter and receiver are integrated on a single silicon chip and which generates a plurality of carriers through the effect of an on-chip modulator, amplifies the optical power of the carriers through the effect of an off-chip amplifier, and generates M orthogonal sets of carriers through the effect of an on-chip basis former.
1. An optical transceiver comprising:
a silicon substrate;
first and second transmitter modulators integrated on the silicon substrate;
first and second photodetectors integrated on the silicon substrate;
a carrier generator configured to receive as input an optical signal having an input carrier from an optical signal source and to generate, from the input carrier, a plurality of output carriers including a first output carrier and a second output carrier;
a first power splitter configured to provide the first output carrier to the first transmitter modulator and to the first photodetector; and
a second power splitter configured to provide the second output carrier to the second transmitter modulator and to the second photodetector.
2. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , further comprising a wavelength demultiplexer configured to provide the first output carrier to the first power splitter and the second output carrier to the second beam splitter.
3. The optical transceiver of claim 2 , wherein the wavelength demultiplexer is coupled to the carrier generator through an optical amplifier disposed outside the silicon substrate.
4. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , further comprising:
a third power splitter; and
first and second waveguides having different lengths, wherein the first waveguide couples the third power splitter to the first power splitter and the second waveguide couples the third power splitter to the second power splitter.
5. The optical transceiver of claim 4 , further comprising a third waveguide coupled to the third power splitter, wherein the first waveguide has a first length, the second waveguide has a second length and the third waveguide has a third length, wherein the first, second and third lengths substantially conform to a linearly increasing relationship.
6. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the carrier generator is integrated on the silicon substrate.
7. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the carrier generator comprises a signal modulator.
8. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the first photodetector is configured to beat the first output carrier with an input signal and the second photodetector is configured to beat the second output carrier with the input signal.
9. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , wherein the first and/or second transmitter modulators comprises a quadrature phase shift key (QPSK) modulator.
10. The optical transceiver of claim 1 , further comprising a power combiner coupled to the first and second transmitter modulators.
11. An optical transceiver comprising:
a silicon substrate;
first and second transmitter modulators integrated on the silicon substrate;
first and second photodetectors integrated on the silicon substrate;
a carrier generator configured to receive as input an optical signal having an input carrier from an optical signal source and to generate, from the input carrier, a plurality of output carriers including a first output carrier and a second output carrier; and
a power splitter having first and second outputs,
wherein the first output of the power splitter is configured to provide the first output carrier to the first transmitter modulator and the second output carrier to the second transmitter modulator, and the second output of the power splitter is configured to provide the first output carrier to the first photodetector and the second output carrier to the second photodetector.
12. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , further comprising:
a first wavelength demultiplexer coupled to the first output of the power splitter and configured to provide the first output carrier to the first transmitter modulator and the second output carrier to the second transmitter modulator.
13. The optical transceiver of claim 12 , further comprising:
a second wavelength demultiplexer coupled to the second output of the power splitter and configured to provide the first output carrier to the first photodetector and the second output carrier to the second photodetector.
14. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , wherein the power splitter is a first power splitter, and wherein the optical transceiver further comprises:
a second power splitter coupled to the first output of the first power splitter; and
first and second waveguides having different lengths, the first waveguide coupling the second power splitter to the first transmitter modulator and the second waveguide coupling the second power splitter to the second transmitter modulator.
15. The optical transceiver of claim 14 , further comprising:
a third power splitter coupled to the second output of the first power splitter; and
third and fourth waveguides having different lengths, the third waveguide coupling the third power splitter to the first photodetector and the fourth waveguide coupling the third power splitter to the second photodetector.
16. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , wherein the carrier generator is integrated on the silicon substrate.
17. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , wherein the carrier generator comprises a signal modulator.
18. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , wherein the first photodetector is configured to beat the first output carrier with an input signal and the second photodetector is configured to beat the second output carrier with the input signal.
19. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , wherein the first and/or second transmitter modulators comprises a quadrature phase shift key (QPSK) modulator.
20. The optical transceiver of claim 11 , further comprising a power combiner coupled to the first and second transmitter modulators.