A cost-effective solution to provide higher data rates in wireless communication system is to push carrier wave frequencies into millimeter wave (MMW) range, where the frequency bands within the E-band and F-band have been allocated. Photonics is a key technology to generate low phase noise signals, offering methods of generating continuous MMW with varying performance in terms of frequency bandwidth, tunability, and stability. Recently, we demonstrated for the first time of our knowledge the generation of a 95-GHz signal by optical heterodyning of two modes from different channels of a monolithically integrated arrayed waveguide grating multi-wavelength laser (AWGL). The device uses an arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) as an intra-cavity filter. With up to 16-channel sources with independent amplifiers and a booster amplifier on the common waveguide, the laser cavity is formed between cleaved facets of the chip. The two wavelengths required for optical heterodyning are generated activating simultaneously two channel SOAs and the Boost amplifier. In this work, we analyze the effect on the dual-wavelength operation of the Boost SOA, which is shared by two wavelengths. Mapping the optical spectrum, sweeping the two channel and Boost bias currents, we show the interaction among the different SOAs two find the regions of dual wavelength operation. The size of dual wavelength operation region depends greatly on the Boost SOA bias level. Initial results of a numerical model of the AWGL will be also presented, in which a digital filter is used to implement the AWG frequency behavior.

Date Published: 7 May 2013
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 8781, Integrated Optics: Physics and Simulations, 87810F (7 May 2013); doi: 10.1117/12.2017145

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8781:
Integrated Optics: Physics and Simulations
Pavel Cheben; Jiří Čtyroký; Iñigo Molina-Fernandez, Editor(s)