Fiber Optics:

Engineering from Global to Nanometer Dimensions

Prof. Craig Armiento

Armiento

Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Optical Fiber Communications

What is it?
Transmission of information using light over an optical fiber

Why use it?

Armiento

Extremely high data rate and wide bandwidth

Low attenuation (loss of signal strength)
Longer distance without repeaters
Immunity to electrical interference
Small size and weight
Longer life expectancy than copper or coaxial cable
Bandwidth can be increased by adding wavelengths

Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Electromagnetic Spectrum and Communication Services

0.8 1.6 m
Armiento

Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

What is an Optical Fiber?

Made from silica glass
Light is contained in an
inner core which is only
9 m in diameter
Very low loss of signal
strength (0.3 dB per
kilometer - which is
7%/km)
Despite being made of
glass, fiber is strong and
bendable!

Armiento

Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Basic Optical Link Design

Electrical-to-Optical Conversion

Optical-to-Electrical Conversion
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Intro to E.E.

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Using Wavelengths to Increase Capacity

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Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Engineers can increase the information

capacity between two locations by using
extra wavelengths
All of the wavelengths are added to a
single fiber
This is called Dense Wavelength
Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
Eliminates the need for multiple fibers
Each wavelength is generated by a
different source and carries its own
data
The wavelengths dont interfere with
each other when in the same fiber

Information Capacities in Optical Fiber

Each wavelength can carry a signal operating at 10
gigabits/sec (1010 bits/sec)
A fiber can transport up to 64 different wavelengths
Each wavelength can carry 10 Gb/s
Unlike electrical signals, optical signals inside the same fiber at
different wavelengths dont interfere with each other

Each fiber can have an aggregate data rate of 640 Gb/s

This is 640,000,000,000 bits per second!

This rate translates to:

10 million simultaneous telephone calls (64 kb/s each)
Download the contents of the Library of Congress takes:
84 years using a 56 kp/s modem
0.22 seconds using the aggregate fiber rate

These rates can go much higher!

Researchers have developed operation of 40 Gb/s per wavelength
A fiber cable can contain as much as a hundred fibers
Researchers are working towards hundreds of wavelengths
Armiento

Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Cable Size Comparison: Copper vs. Fiber

This is a standard
copper cable used for
telephone service.
This carries about 300
phone calls

One of these fibers can

carry up to 10 million
telephone calls

Armiento

Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Fiber Optics Engineering Disciplines

Network Design
Optical power levels, routing and switching

Communications Theory
Multiplexing multiple data streams

Optical Physics
Fiber design, optical component design

Material Science
Fiber manufacturing, new materials for sources, detectors

Semiconductor Physics
Designing lasers, photodetectors

Electronics
High speed IC design for transmitter and receiver

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Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

Optical Fiber is Everywhere!

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Optical Network Design

Engineering on a Global Scale
Designing fiber optic networks that carry
information over thousand of miles
How to get the photons to travel that far
How to keep the bits of information intact
Protocols to use analog or digital?

Designing fiber networks for different applications

Telecommunications and data
Cable TV
Local Area networks e.g., campus network
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Managing Global Networks

Network
Operations
Center

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Attenuation vs. Wavelength

Optical fiber systems
use sources and
detectors that work in
the near infrared
wavelengths because
fiber has the lowest
losses
Fiber has losses as low
as 0.2 dB/km. Coaxial
cable has losses as high
as 60 dB/km

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Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

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Manufacturing Fiber: Draw Tower

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Fiber Cables

Multi-purpose
Cable
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Intro to E.E.

Submarine
Cable
Fall 2003

Telephone Pole
Mounted Cable
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Optical Sources
Lasers are used as optical sources
Sufficient power for long distances
Pure optical spectrum - single wavelength
Can be modulated at high data rates (gigabits per
second)

Designed to emit at infrared wavelengths from

1.3-1.55 m where fiber has the lowest loss
Made from semiconductor materials and are
designed to couple light into the fiber core
Semiconductor lasers are very different from more
conventional lasers such as CO2 and HeNe lasers
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Diode Lasers are Small!

Laser

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Component Manufacturing for Fiber Optics

Semiconductor devices such as

lasers are often made with very thin
layers (<1 m) using sophisticated
equipment such as this Molecular
Bean Epitaxy (MBE) system

Semiconductor devices such as

ICs and lasers are produced in
clean rooms
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Materials Engineering

Thin layers of semiconductor

materials are grown on an
atomic level using MBE
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Example of layers grown

with a spacing of 1.2 nm
(10-9 m)

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Packaging a Laser
Laser packaging requires submicron
accuracy to align a micron size
emitting spot to the core of a fiber.
These parts must be soldered in place
and keep their alignment for 20 years

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Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

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Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS)

There is a new class of components micro-sized
moving components for different applications
MEMS are fabricated in silicon using processes
used in IC manufacturing
MEMS are used in many applications
Air bags, biological analysis, fiber optics, etc

MEMS have been used to create tiny mirrors that

can be used to switch and deflect light

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Optical Switch

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Optical Switching
Route optical communication signals
without conversion to the electronic
domain using microscopic mirrors
based on MEMS technology

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MEMS: Miniature Motors

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MEMS Mirror Array for Projectors

Digital Light Processing (DLP)

Texas Instruments

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Engineering on a Global to Nano Scale

Global Optical Networks

A network engineer designs optical networks that transmit high speed data over
thousands of kilometers across continents and oceans
The physical scale is 106 meters

Communication Equipment Design

An equipment engineer must integrate high speed electronic ICs and optical
components into subsystems that are used in telecom centers
The physical scale in on the order of a meter

Fiber and Laser Packaging

A packaging engineer must design alignment accuracy on a scale of a micron
between the fiber core and laser emission spot
The physical scale is 10-6 meters

Optical Component Design

A component engineer can design quantum well lasers with device dimensions
of 1 nanometer (2 atoms thick!)
The physical scale is 10-9 meters

Thats a range of 1015 !

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Intro to E.E.

Fall 2003

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