P2-9

Gain saturated SOA cascaded EML analog optical

transmitter
Hyun-Do Jung, Sang-Yun Lee and Sang-Kook Han
Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Yonsei University
Shinchon-Dong, Seodaemoon-Ku, Seoul 120-749, Korea
Tel: 82-2-2123-4016, Fax: 82-2-364-4016
E-mail: s!&an@yonsei.ac.kr

Abstract nonlinear transfer characteristics and the dispersion

We present an improvement of an analog optical
transmission performance by reducing both the
nonlinearity and the periodic R F camer suppression. The
proposed technique takes advantage of the gain
saturation Characteristic of semiconductor optical
amplifier (SOA) to reduce the intrinsic nonlinearity of
electroahsorption-modulated laser (EML) and the
negative chirp characteristic of SOA and EML to expand
the transmission length and operating frequency.
Furthermore, RF signal gain was also obtained through
optical signal amplification.
1. Introduction
Due to the rapidly developing telecommunication
technologies, radio-over-fiber techniques that provide
extremely wide bandwidth and low attenuation loss have
been paid attention extensively. The directly modulated
laser diode (LD) is simple and low-cost approach for
transmitting the RF signals through optical fiber links.
However, the inherent dynamic nonlinearity of LD
degrades the overall link performance in the high
frequency region. So, the external modulation is
popularly used for high frequency RF signal transmission
over fiber. An electroabsorption modulator (EAM) is
good candidate for an external modulator because EAM
has many advantages, such as low driving voltage, small
size, broad bandwidth, and monolithic integration with
other semiconductor components. However, the inherent
induced carrier suppression (DICS) by chromatic
dispersion are main limitations of p-lmm-wave signal
transmission over an analog optical link
Thus far, several linearization techniques such as
feedfonvard compensation[l], predistortion[2], dual-
parallel modulation[3], injection locking[l] were
proposed and many researches such as single side hand
(SSB) modulation[5], optical phase conjugation[6],
negative chirp operation[7], chirped fiber grating[l]
were performed to overcome the DlCS effects.
However, no one of formerly mentioned techniques
could compensate the nonlinearity and DlCS
simultaneously.
In this summary, we present the demonstration of
reducing both the intrinsic nonlinearity of EML and the
DlCS by chromatic dispersion through the gain
saturation Characteristic of SOA. The gain saturation of
SOA offers the suppression of nonlinear distortion
component, negative chirp for extending the
transmission performance, and RF signal gain through
optical signal amplification. In experiment, we have
obtained 9dB suppression of CTB at back-to-back
condition. Furthermore, we also showed that the
improvement in DlCS performance of an analog
optical link could he achieved simultaneously by using
SOA in conjunction with a EML.
2. Gain saturation characteristics of SOA

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 The nonlinear transfer curve of EML causes the
nonlinear distortion components that get worse the
signal-to-noise ratio at receiver. These nonlinear products
can be suppressed by the gain saturation characteristics
of SOA[9]. Figure 1 shows the measured transmission
characteristics of EML and ideal linearized transfer curve.
Reverse Bias (V)
Fig. 1 Transfer Curve of EML
From Fig. 1, we could find that the gain of high optical
output power region should be lower than that of low
optical output power region in order to change the
nonlinear transfer curve into linear one. In this case, the
required gain slope o! alter the transfer curve was -0.4
and this gain profile can be obtained from the gain
saturation region of SOA. To find the proper gain profile,
we observed the gain profile of SOA for several bias
currents
10
Fig. 2 SOA gain profile
As shown in Fig. 2, the gain slope is closely matched at
70mA with the required gain profile needed for
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linearization. At this bias current, SOA operates in the
gain saturation region and can linearize nonlinear
transfer curve of EML within the restrictive power
range.
As well known, however, SOA has negative chirp
characteristic at the gain saturation region[]. So, SOA
can be used to compensate the positive chirp
characteristic of modulator. As a result, by using a SOA,
we could achieve the suppression of intrinsic nonlinear
distortion and the reduction of dispersion induced
effects in optical intensity modulator for an analog
optical link. Furthermore, RF gain could be also
obtained due to optical amplification.
3. Experiment
We performed the RF two-tone test at frequencies
of 3.00 and 3.01 GHz. We swept the whole bias position
in the case with and without SOA to examine the
variation of the transfer curve. As shown in the fig.3,
the transfer curve variation is dominant near 1 . 2 5 ~
(high reverse bias region)
. , . . .
; . :
EML Output 3dam only
EML Output 3dBm + SOA 7OmA :
0.0 0.5 10 I5
Reverse Bias (V)
Fig. 3 CTB variation with SOA 70mA
We chose the bias position of EML near 1 . 2 5 ~in spite
of relatively high insertion loss because the received
RF power was maximum in this bias region with SOA.
We compared the RF spectrum with and without SOA
at the maximum CTB bias position respectively around
1 . 2 5 ~ . In back-to-back condition, the received RF
spectrum of single EML are shown in Fig. 4(a). Due to
the maximum CTB bias position, the IMD3 signal was
suppressed near the noise level and CTB was 46.5dBc.
To linearize the nonlinear transfer curve, the SOA was
placed next to EML. As mentioned above, at the bias
current of 70mA, SOA provides a proper gain slope for
linearization. Figure 4(h) shows the RF spectrum of this
case. As shown in the graph, fundamental RF signals
were roughly lOdB higher than single EML case. It was
thought that SOA provided RF gain via optical
amplification. This RF gain would compensate the
insertion loss of EML at high hias region, too.
-20 -
and (h) show the transmission characteristics of the
proposed link. Figure 5(a) shows the variation of
normalized RF camer power for the operating
frequency after the 101.8km transmission. In the single
EML case with quadratic hias position, the periodic
suppression of carrier power due lo DlCS was
observed obviously. By using the SOA, the periodic
suppression of carrier power was considerably reduced
due to the negative chirp characteristic of SOA.

-
m
E
-M -
-
0 -40 .
.46.SdB<

-EML1.27V + S O A 70mA

-10
2-98 2.99 3.00 3.01 1.02 3.03
Fnq"."sy (CHI1

(a) .
- -i:-__
. .. -. _ _~.
.-. .. ..
.IO - -..:
.f ..
-20 - .
-E
0
.ID- : -. : .
-SbdB0
: >..
* 4-
: EML 1.27V Only . . .
:
v
-yl-
EML 1.27V + SOA 70mA
EML 0.52V Only
.-,..
.E
-60-
b ZD 40 60 a0 TOO

-70 - Distance (km)

-80- ,
2.-
, ,
2.90
. ,
,.no
. ,
J.01
. ,
3.02
. ,
3.0,
, (b)
Fig. 5 Transmission characteristic
FreqY.ncy (Om)
(a) Normalized RF carrier signal for the operating
(b)
Fig. 4 Received RF spectrum frequency
(a) Single EML, (b) EML +SOA (b) the received RF carrier power for several
transmission distances
To investigate the transmission performance of the
proposed scheme, the output of SOA was transmitted However, as compared the single EML case with the
through 101.8km standard single mode fiber (SSMF) at bias position of 1.27V and with bias position of 0.52V,
the back-to-back bias conditions. The transmitted optical the periodic suppression point in the frequency domain
signal was amplified and normalized before has been expanded up to 2.5GHz. This is because EML
photodetection to compensate the fiber loss. Figure 5(a) has the negative chirp characteristics at the high bias

-207-
region. Therefore, EML with SOA configuration has
higher negative chirp value than the chirp value of single
SOA. Figure S@) represents the received RF camer
power for several transmission distances. In a single
EML with quadratic bias position (dash dot), the
received RF power was reduced rapidly up to 101.8km
transmission due to the DlCS effect. As the frequency
response results, the negative chirp generated by SOA
extended the camer suppression point. In EML with
SOA case (solid), the power of camer signal could be
maintained with the gain of 30dB compared to a single
EML with quadratic bias position after 101.8km
transmission.
Therefore, by using the SOA at the gain saturation
region, we obtained three effects such as the suppression
of nonlinear distortion component, negative chirp for
improving the transmission performance, and RF signal
gain through optical signal amplification. Furthermore,
we achieved the negative chirp characteristic of EML
additionally. Add
4. Conclusion
We experimentally demonstrated the technique to
improve an analog optical transmission performance by
reducing both the intrinsic nonlinearity of EML and the
periodic RF camer suppression effects via the gain
saturation characteristic of SOA. In experiment, we have
obtained 9dB suppression of CTB at hack-to-hack
condition. Furthermore, we also showed that the
improvement in DlCS performance of an analog optical
link could be achieved simultaneously by using SOA in
conjunction with a EML.
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