Control systems for optical devices and subassemblies
The present invention describes systems 1, 12 and methods for control of optical devices and communications subsystems. The control system comprises ASIC sub-modules and programmable circuitry 25 which may be integrated into a self-contained, stand-alone module. In one embodiment, the module has one or more FPGAs 25 in conjunction with RF and Digital ASICs 30 , an integrated cross-connect 36 between the FPGA and digital and RF ASIC building blocks, and an integrated cross-connect 41 between the ASIC and optical circuits and supporting functions. Programmable chip control and other transmission and tuning functions, programmable transponders, and each FPGA/ASIC 25, 30 that is incorporated into a transponder form factor or a host board, can have the same or different functionalities and other parameters including but not limited to modulation format.
1. An optical module or subassembly for communication with a host board, the optical module or subassembly comprising:
a transmitter optical subassembly for receiving an electrical signal and converting the received electrical signal into an optical signal;
a transmitter drive coupled to the transmitter optical subassembly;
a receiver optical subassembly for receiving an optical signal and converting the received optical signal into an electrical signal;
a receiver interface coupled to the receiver optical subassembly; and
a control system in electrical communication with the host board,
wherein the control system comprises:
a programmable central processing device including a field programmable gate array (FPGA);
monitoring and processing circuitry including application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry is coupled to the programmable central processing device and is programmable for implementation into an optical device physical and transport layer communications specifications for a plurality of different applications, and includes analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) functions, and wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry is configured to be in communication with photonic integrated circuits including a thermoelectric cooler (TEC), a transmitter photonic integrated circuit (Tx-PIC), a receiver photonic integrated circuit (Rx-PIC), and a wavelength locker;
a high bit rate data and clock interface coupled to the FPGA and configured to send and receive data between a host controller and the FPGA; and
a control interface coupled to the FPGA and configured to send and receive monitoring and control data to the host board.
2. The optical module or subassembly according to claim 1 , wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry is monolithically integrated onto the optical device or is a multi-chip module integrated on the optical device.
3. The optical module or subassembly according to claim 1 , wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry comprises circuitry selected from the group consisting of serialization/deserialization (SerDes), encoding/decoding, scrambling/descrambling, gear-boxing, forward error correction (FEC), laser control and monitoring.
4. The optical module or subassembly according to claim 3 , wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry is in a single unit on the optical device.
5. The optical module or subassembly according to claim 1 , wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry comprises a self-contained unit having media access control (MAC), physical layer (PHY) and forward error correction (FEC) functions.
6. The optical module or subassembly according to claim 1 , wherein one or both of the FPGA and ASIC are programmable to match requirements of a plurality of form factors.
7. A system for use in an optical or optoelectronic device or subassembly, the system comprising:
one or more optical modules or subassemblies according to claim 1 , further comprising one or both of a serialization/deserialization (SerDes) and a physical layer (PHY) in communication with the host board.
8. An optical communication system comprising:
programmable circuitry including a field programmable gate array (FPGA) in communication with host circuitry;
monitoring and processing circuitry including an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in communication with the programmable circuitry, the ASIC including analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) and digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) functions, wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry is programmable for implementation of physical and transport layer communication specifications for a plurality of different applications; and
one or more photonic integrated circuits in communication with the monitoring and processing circuitry, wherein the one or more photonic integrated circuits include a thermoelectric cooler (TEC), a transmitter photonic integrated circuit (Tx-PIC), a receiver photonic integrated circuit (Tx-PIC), and a wavelength locker;
a high bit rate data and clock interface coupled to the FPGA and configured to send and receive data between the host circuitry and the FPGA; and
a control interface coupled to the FPGA and configured to send and receive monitoring and control data to the host circuitry.
9. The optical communication system according to claim 8 , wherein the optical communication system further comprises a serialization/deserialization (SerDes) in communication with and being disposed between the programmable circuitry and host circuitry.
10. The optical communication system according to claim 8 , wherein the monitoring and processing circuitry comprises at least one of: cross connects or SerDes.
11. The optical communication system according to claim 8 , wherein the optical communication system is configured to receive an input signal having a first Giga bits per second (Gps) rate and produce an output signal having a second Gps rate.
12. The optical communication system according to claim 11 , wherein the input signal having a first Gps rate and the output signal having a second Gps rate are programmable to different rates to accommodate the plurality of different applications and linecards.