Unpreamplified Heterodyne Detection of 10 Gb/s NRZ-OOK with High Receiver Sensitivity (2006)

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D. Becker, C. Wree, D. Mohr, and A. Joshi
Discovery Semiconductors, Inc.
119 Silvia Street
Ewing, New Jersey, 08628, USA

ABSTRACT

We report -31 dBm receiver sensitivity for heterodyne detection of 10 Gb/s OOK without using an optical pre-amplifier. These are the highest receiver sensitivities for unpreamplified heterodyne 10 Gb/s detection. We also show the development of a coherent heterodyne balanced fiber optic receiver. The receiver incorporates a DFB or a solid state laser local oscillator, balanced PIN photodiodes, RF post amplifier, automatic frequency control (AFC), phase locked loop (PLL), polarization control, and precision power supplies in a small instrument case. We will show shot noise limited detection of amplitude modulated signals, cancellation of laser RIN noise, performance improvement using balanced detection at 2.5 and 10 Gb/s, and IF linewidth reduction.

* Paper presented at the Asia-Pacific Optical Communications Conference, Gwangju, Korea, 2006, paper 6353-113.