K Katarzyna Lawniczuk

An introduction to InP-based generic integration technology

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are considered as the way to make photonic systems or subsystems cheap and ubiquitous. PICs still are several orders of magnitude more expensive than their microelectronic counterparts, which has restricted their application to a few niche markets. Recently, a novel approach in photonic integration is emerging which will reduce the R&D and prototyping costs and the throughput time of PICs by more than an order of magnitude. It will bring the application of PICs that integrate complex and advanced photonic functionality on a single chip within reach for a large number of small and larger companies and initiate a breakthrough in the application of Photonic ICs. The paper explains the concept of generic photonic integration technology using the technology developed by the COBRA research institute of TU Eindhoven as an example, and it describes the current status and prospects of generic InP-based integration technology.

InP-Based Photonic Multiwavelength Transmitter With DBR Laser Array

We demonstrate an InP-based photonic multiwavelength transmitter realized by integrating an array of distributed Bragg reflector lasers with modulators in Mach-Zehnder configuration. An arrayed waveguide grating is used to multiplex the generated signals into a common optical output. The device is designed according to a generic integration concept, using standardized building blocks, and is fabricated in a multiproject wafer run. The device delivers up to 4 dBm of optical power into the fiber with a modulation data rate of 12.5 Gbps per transmission channel. The obtained performance makes it very promising for application in the next generation optical access networks as a key source in the central office part of the telecommunication systems.

12.5GB operation of a novel monolithic 1.55µm BPSK source based on prefixed optical phase switching

Novel optical phase switching BPSK transmitter was used to transmit 12.5GB signal over 40km. Speed scalability, ultra-small footprint and low power drive of the monolithic circuit are attractive for advanced format migration towards low-cost applications.

40-Gb/s Colorless Reflective Amplified Modulator

In this letter, we demonstrate a colorless reflective amplified modulator operating within the C- and L-band spectral ranges with the modulation data rate up to 40 Gb/s. We obtain a stable, open eye performance of the device at the temperature until 85°C. The presented device is fabricated using an indium phosphide (InP) monolithic integration platform, which relies on an AlGaInAs quantum well active material, gap engineering by selective area growth, and low-parasitic RC semi-insulating buried heterostructures.

Photonic ICs in a generic foundry

A generic foundry model in photonics enables design and fabrication of a variety of different photonic devices, for many applications, using standardized high-performance foundry platforms. Access to the generic foundries is available via multi-project wafer runs. In this way, the costs for developing photonic ICs are reduced by more than an order of magnitude and come within reach for SMEs and universities. The reduction of processing costs is achieved by costs-sharing among many application users participating in one fab cycle, and by reusing standardized and parameterized photonic components. A closer view on an indium phosphide based photonic ICs is given.

AWG-Based Photonic Transmitter With DBR Mirrors and Mach–Zehnder Modulators

In this letter, we demonstrate a novel monolithically integrated photonic multiwavelength transmitter that was realized by integrating an arrayed waveguide grating-based laser with selective distributed Bragg reflector mirrors and Mach-Zehnder modulators. The integrated circuit was designed according to a generic integration model, by utilizing standardized photonic building blocks, and was fabricated on an InP-based platform in a multiproject wafer run. The device delivers above 1 mW of optical power into the fiber with a side mode suppression ratio better than 40 dB. The linewidth of the generated signals is 275 kHz. We achieved error free 50-km transmission at the modulation data rate of 10 Gb/s per channel, for a received power of -26.5 dBm.

Millimeter-wave signal generation by optical heterodyne of two channels from an arrayed waveguide grating-based multi-wavelength laser

Arrayed waveguide grating multi-wavelength lasers have been shown to provide simultaneously multiple wavelengths. In this work we report the characteristics of the heterodyne signal in the millimeter-wave range. The optical linewidth measured from the modes generated by the different channels can be as narrow as 120 kHz. We present for the first time the beat note obtained from mixing two channels onto a high speed photodiode, demonstrating a narrow linewidth of 250 kHz, which is to the best of out knowledge the narrowest beat-note measured from a free running monolithic semiconductor dual wavelength source working on the 1,550 nm wavelength range.

Laser research on an InP-based generic integration platform

In Europe a number of technology platforms for generic integration are being created for photonic integrated circuits (PICs); in Silicon, in passive dielectrics, and in Indium Phosphide. Such platforms are on the brink of commercialization, they offer a range of calibrated building blocks from which application specific PICs can be built and allow simplified, reduced cost access to a standardised technology, but presently only InP based platforms allow the integration of optical gain blocks; the essential feature of a semiconductor laser. The wavelength is constrained by the platform, usually C-band, but in the near future we expect other wavelengths in the 1.3μm-2.0μm range will be addressed. A frozen platform technology may not seem an ideal starting point for novel laser research but for what may be appear to be lost in epitaxial and process flexibility, much more is gained through a new-found ability to build up complex circuits quickly to deliver new and interesting laser based functionality. Building blocks such as reflectors (a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) or a multimode interference reflector (MIR)), an amplifier section, and passive waveguides, can be built up by designers into integrated semiconductor lasers of a wide variety of types. This ready integration of novel sources with other circuit functionality can address a wide range of applications in telecoms, datacoms, and fibre based sensing systems. In this paper we describe a number of recent developments on generic InP-based platforms ranging from the fabrication of simple Fabry-Perot lasers, through tuneable DBR lasers, multi-wavelength comb lasers, picosecond pulse lasers and ring lasers.

Design study of integrated photonic transmitters for application in Fiber-to-the-Home networks

The paper presents the way that colour can serve solving the problem of calibration points indexing in a camera geometrical calibration process. We propose a technique in which indexes of calibration points in a black-and-white chessboard are represented as sets of colour regions in the neighbourhood of calibration points. We provide some general rules for designing a colour calibration chessboard and provide a method of calibration image analysis. We show that this approach leads to obtaining better results than in the case of widely used methods employing information about already indexed points to compute indexes. We also report constraints concerning the technique. Nowadays we are witnessing an increasing need for camera geometrical calibration systems. They are vital for such applications as 3D modelling, 3D reconstruction, assembly control systems, etc. Wherever possible, calibration objects placed in the scene are used in a camera geometrical calibration process. This approach significantly increases accuracy of calibration results and makes the calibration data extraction process easier and universal. There are many geometrical camera calibration techniques for a known calibration scene [1]. A great number of them use as an input calibration points which are localised and indexed in the scene. In this paper we propose the technique of calibration points indexing which uses a colour chessboard. The presented technique was developed by solving problems we encountered during experiments with our earlier methods of camera calibration scene analysis [2]-[3]. In particular, the proposed technique increases the number of indexed points points in case of local lack of calibration points detection. At the beginning of the paper we present a way of designing a chessboard pattern. Then we describe a calibration point indexing method, and finally we show experimental results. A black-and-white chessboard is widely used in order to obtain sub-pixel accuracy of calibration points localisation [1]. Calibration points are defined as corners of chessboard squares. Assuming the availability of rough localisation of these points, the points can be indexed. Noting that differences in distances between neighbouring points in calibration scene images differ slightly, one of the local searching methods can be employed (e.g. [2]). Methods of this type search for a calibration point to be indexed, using a window of a certain size. The position of the window is determined by a vector representing the distance between two previously indexed points in the same row or column. However, experiments show that this approach has its disadvantages, as described below. * E-mail: A.Nowakowski@ire.pw.edu.pl Firstly, there is a danger of omitting some points during indexing in case of local lack of calibration points detection in a neighbourhood (e.g. caused by the presence of non-homogeneous light in the calibration scene). A particularly unfavourable situation is when the local lack of detection effects in the appearance of separated regions of detected calibration points. It is worth saying that such situations are likely to happen for calibration points situated near image borders. Such points are very important for the analysis of optical nonlinearities, and a lack of them can significantly influence the accuracy of distortion modelling. Secondly, such methods may give wrong results in the case of optical distortion with strong nonlinearities when getting information about the neighbouring index is not an easy task. Beside this, the methods are very sensitive to a single false localisation of a calibration point. Such a single false localisation can even result in false indexing of a big set of calibration points. To avoid the above-mentioned problems, we propose using a black-and-white chessboard which contains the coded index of a calibration point in the form of colour squares situated in the nearest neighbourhood of each point. The index of a certain calibration point is determined by colours of four nearest neighbouring squares (Fig.1). An order of squares in such foursome is important. Because the size of a colour square is determined only by the possibility of correct colour detection, the size of a colour square can be smaller than the size of a black or white square. The larger size of a black or white square is determined by the requirements of the exact localisation step which follows the indexing of calibration points [3]. In this step, edge information is extracted from a blackand-white chessboard. This edge information needs larger Artur Nowakowski, Wladyslaw Skarbek Institute of Radioelectronics, Warsaw University of Technology, Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warszawa, A.Nowakowski@ire.pw.edu.pl Received February 10, 2009; accepted March 27, 2009; published March 31, 2009 http://www.photonics.pl/PLP

Reconfigurable six-section wavelength-tunable distributed bragg reflector laser

A novel operation mode field reconfigurable DBR laser is designed, realized and investigated experimentally. With different controlling of the same hardware, a shared-cavity six-section DBR laser diode can be flexibly configured to operate as a continuous wave or a pulsed wave laser.