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Properties of optical sources are important while configuring optical communication system
i) Wavelength:
Operating wavelength must be chosen such that it gives low loss and low
dispersion is optical fibers.
Wavelength around 0.85um, 1.3um & 1.6um gives low attenuation. The
wavelength that can be generated by various semiconductor photoemissive
materials are shown in following figure
ii) Modulation:
Direct modulation must be possible or it must be easy to couple for an external
modulation.
iii) Reliability:
Long life, good stability of operation and good reproductivity of output
characteristics are necessary.
Life time of 10hrs must be the minimum requirement.
iv) Output power:
Minimum optical power required from the source determined from transmission
loss of the fiber, minimum detectable power (Pmin). For α=45db, and Pmin=-
45dbm, the required source output power is more than 1mw.
v) Power efficiency:
Let Pd=dc input power required to generate output power Po.
The device efficiency ηd is given by,
ηd =(Po/Pd)*100%
Power efficiency of > 50% should be minimum.
vi) Spectral width:
The spectral can strongly affect the magnitude of the transmission bandwidth.if
the spectral width of the is decreased then the bandwidth of the system is
increased. Spectral width is given by,
Δλ=Δ10/LΔf
vii) Focussing effect:
Longer the coherent length Lc, smaller the size of the focussed spot produced by the
lens.
It should be possible to focus the output on to the fibre and to obtain higher
coupling efficiency.
Principle of action:
Fig: Light radiation by the pn junction of semiconductor
The forward bias voltage V causes the electrons and holes to enter the depletion
region and recombine.
In terms of energy band diagram, the external energy V excites electrons at
conduction band. From there they fall to the valence band and recombine with holes
Recombination results in the release of radiation in the visible (or) light part of the
spectrum
*POPULAR SEMICONDUCTORS USED FOR LED FUBRICATION
Types of LED:
Disadvantage
In Hetero junction LED, both p-type and n-type semiconductor have the different
energy gap. The p-n junction of such semiconductors are called as “heterosturucture
LED”
This devices, continues the emitted light in to much smaller area.
With hetero junction devices, light is emitted from the edge of the material and are
often called edge emitters
Advantage:
LED Structure:
The two basic configurations being used for fiber optics are
(i) Surface emitters
(ii) Edge emitters
The plane of the active light emitting region is oriented perpendicularly to the axis
of the fiber.
Here, a well is etched. Through the substrate of the device, in to which a fiber is
then cemented in order to accept the emitted light.
The circular active area in practical surface emitter is nominally 50 Um in diameter
and upto 2.5 Um thick. The emission pattern is essentially Iso tropic with a 120 half
power beam width.
This Iso tropic pattern from a surface emitter is called a lambertian pattern . In this
pattern source is equally bright when viewed from any direction. But the power
diminished as cosθ, where θ is the angle between viewing direction and the line
orthogonal to the radiating surface.
P=po, when ce=0, half power of the lambertian source is concentrated in a 120 cone.
Edge emitter LED consists of an active function region., which is the source of the
incoherent light and two guiding layers.
The guiding layers both have a refractive index which is lower than that of the
active region but higher than the index of the surround material. This structure
forms a wave guide channel that directs the optical radiation towards the fiber core.
To match the typical fiber core diameter (50-100hm)
(i) The contact stripes width should be 100-150hm
(ii) The length of the active region should be 100-150hm)
The emission pattern of edge emitter is more directional than that of the surface emitter.
Then the rate equation for carrier recombination in an LED can be written as
1/t= 1/tr+1/tnr__________7
LED power
If the current Injected in to the LED is I, then the total no. of recombination for
second is
Rr+Rnr=I/q_____________9
Rr= radioative recombination rate i.e. it represent total no. of Photons generated per second
and that each photon has an energy hu
P int= Rr.hu__________11
= ηint I/q.hu
= ηint I/q h.c/λ
P int= ηint Ihc/qλ_______12
Ext= No. of Photons escaping from a semi conductor/ No. of charge carrier Injected
Fig:
Consider n1as n
T(0)=4n/(n+1)2
ηext=1/n(n+1)2
Laser diode:
The term laser, actually is an acronym for the phrase Light Amplication by Stimulated
Emission of Radiation. Thus laser is a source whose radiation has high intensity, high
coherence, high monochromacity and high directionality.
A laser diode consists of an active medium to produce optical amplification and optical
reason to provide the necessary optical feed back.
Laser action means the amplification of light by stimulated emission of radiation. To get
laser action
(i) The stimulated emission is necessary
(ii) There should be population inversion of atom
(iii) There should be stimulation photon
(a) Absorption
By this absorption process, an atom in level E, absorbs photon of frequency (E2-E1)/h and
goes to upper energy level E2. The rate of absorption depends upon the no. of atoms present
in the level E1 and density of photons present in the system.
Characteristics:
An atom in an excited level (or) high energy level E2 can make a transistion to lower
energy level E1 by an external photon of energy (E1-E1). The stimulating (or) inducing
photon and emitted photon are in same phase with same energy and they travel in the same
direction.
The photon emitted in this process has same energy (i.e. the same wave length) as incident
photon, and is in phase with it. Also their amplitudes add to produce brighter level.
Characteristics:
Injection laser diode has several advantages other semi conductor surces (eg . LED)
For example in GaAS laser, both the P-layer and n-layer are made up of GaAS only
Principle of operation:
The crystal mirror act as light reflection morrors. The photons generated in the pn
junction will be reflected by the mirrors
Since the fabryt-perot cavity is fairly long, the laser will osullare simultaneously in
several frequencies (happened in left side facet)
When these resonant frequencies are transmitted through the right hand facet, they add
in phase. This results in a greatly increased amplitude(or) brighter light beam, with a
broad spectrum.
Draw back:
Mostly the heterojunction laser diodes are used as optical sources in the optical source in the
optical fiber communication because they have so many advantages
A marrow metallic stripe runs along the length of the diode. The refractive index of active
area is greater than the refractive index of n-doped and p-doped region for providing
waveguide structure in the case of gain guided laser.
The structure of aluminium galliam arsinide (AlGaAs) oxide stripe DH laser is as shown
in the figure
Optical light confinement method of Grain guided laser diode as shown in the figure.
In the above structure, a narrow electrode stripe (less than 8 um wide) runs along the
length of the diode. The injection of electrons and holes in to the device alters the
refractive index of the active layer, directly below the stripe. The profile of these injected
carriers creates a weak, complex waveguide that continues the light laterally. This type of
device is commonly reformed to as gain guided laser.
Although these lasers can emit optical powers exceeding 100 MW, they have strong
instabilities and can have highly astigmatic, two peaked beams. So these structure are not
used in practice.
In a –ve index guidefig(b), the central region of the active layer has a lower repractive
index than the outer refions.
At the dielectric boundaries, part of the light is reflected and rest is refracted in to the
surrounding material and thus cost.
This radiation loss appears in the far dield radiation pattern as narrow side lobes to main
beam.
The +ve index laser is more popular than the gain guided laser and –ve index laser
structure.
Fig(a) fig(b)
(1) Buried hetero structure (2) a selectively diffused construction (3) a varying thickness
structure (4) bent layer configuration
Buried hetero structure (BH) laser
Fig (a) Shost wave length (800-900nm) GA Al AS-buried heterostructure laser diodes
Fig (b) long wave length (1300-1600nm) InGaASP-Buried heterostructure laser
diodes
To maked buried hetero structure laser, one etches a narrow mesa stripe (1-2 Um
wide) in double heterostructure material.
The mesa is then embedded in high resistance lattice matched m-type material with an
appropriated bund gap and low repractive index (contining layer)
This material GaAlAS in 800-900nm laser with a GaAS active layer, and is Inp for 1300-
1600nm laser with an In GA Asp Active layer
This configuration strongly traps generated light in a lateral waveguide.
Photodetectors:
The first element of the receiver is a photodector. The photodetector senses the light signal
falling on it and covens the variation of optical power to a correspondingly varying electric
current
(1) A high sensitivity to the emission wavgelength range of the received signal
(2) High quantum efficiency
(3) A minimum addition of noise to the sigtnal
(4) A fast response speed to handle the desired data rate
(5) Be sensitive to temperature variations
(6) Be compatible with the physical dimensan of the fiber
(7) Have ak reasonable cost
(8) Have a long operating life time
PIN photodiode & Avalanche Photodiode (APD) satisfy the above set of requirements
(iv) Bandwidth
The 3-dB bw is defines the receiver bandwidth, which is the range of frequencies
that a receives can reproduce the signal. If rise time & fall time are equal, then the 3dB BW is
Avalanche Photodiodes
Avalanche Multiplication Process:
An avalanche photodiode internally multiplies the photocurrent before it enters the input
circuitry of the following amplition. The multiplication effect is achieved by applying a
very high electric field across the photodiode.
Whwen photo generated electron encountess this high electric field, it can acquire
sufficient energy to kick more electrons from the valence to the conduction band, thereby
creating secondary lectron-hole pairs.
These secondary pairs alonger accelerated to high energies and therefore can generate
even more electron-hole pairs. This increases receiver sensitivity since the photo current
is multiplies prior to encountering the electrical noise associated with the receiver
circuiting. The process is called avalanche multiplication, and hence the device is called
an avalanche photodiode. This carrier multiplication mechanism is known as „Impact
conization‟
A commonly used structure for achieving carrier multiplication is the” reach through
construction” (RAP)
Reach trough APD is composed of a high resistivity p-type material, heavily doped p+
substrate, heavily doped n+ layer and II layer (or) intrinsic layer
Operation:
The term „Reach through‟ arises from the photodiode operation. When a low reverse bias
voltage is applies, most of the potential drop is across the Pn+ function
Thge deplection layer widens with increasing bias until a certain voltage is reachers. (
That voltage is known as peak electric field) and this voltage is 10-15% below the
avalanche break down voltage
At this point, the depletion layer just “reaches through” to nearly intrinsic II region. Now
high electric field is across the deplection layer.
Light enters the device through the p+ region and is absorbed in the II-material (or)
intrinsic layer
Due to incident of light some carriers will be generated in the intensic region. Because of
high electric field across the intrinsic region, generated photo c arrier kick more electrons
from valance band to conduction band, there by ineating secondary electro hole pairs. IN
this way more no. of carriers generated and causes more photo current. This increases the
receiver sensitivity
The mean no. of electron-hole pairs created is a measure of the carrier multiplication.
This is called the gain and is designated by M.
M= Im/Ip
Ip= Primary un multiplies photo current. (before carrier multiplication take place)
Performance of an APD is characterized by its responsivity RAPD, which is given by
Rapd= ηq/hu M=RoM
OPTICAL TRANSMITTER
The transmitter is the unit of the fiber optic communication system responsible for
converting an lectrical information signal in to an optical one. The major component of a
transmitter-a light source in the form of an LED (or) a laserdide
Fig: Functional block diagram of a transmitter
(i) Data conversion unit
(a) Encoding:
Date enter in parallel format but a laser diode can be driven only by serial pulses of
modulation amount. Thus parallel to serial convertor (multiplexer) is used to convert data in
to serial format.
This is performed by data conversion unit which uses either comparator (or) buffer for data
conversion purpose
Data prepared for light transmission p[ass in to a laser driver. We need this circuit
because a laser diode is a current driver device rather than voltage driver device, while the
power supply is always a voltage source.
The function of laser driver is to convert outside voltage in to the current needed to drive the
laser.
Also the signal from this PD allows the user to stabilize the laser O/P wavelength to a few
picometers (5 PM=0.0055nm)
It is used to efficiently couple the light from thansmitter to fiber. Also its protect the active
area of a light source from base returned light.
Optical receiver
(a) A noise filter: This improves the signal to noise ratio (or) receivers‟s
sensitivity
(b) Amplifier/ limiter: Amplification (performed by amplifier) is necessary to attain
a signal with enough power to drive the decision circuit.
If the amplified signal is high enough the limiter circuit clips the signal
(larger the amplitude lesser the gain)
(c) Decision circuit: This unit determines the logical meaning of the received
signal. When the received signal above the threshold, the comparator output is
high. This means the decision is made that the received signal carriers logic
high (or)
When the received signal below the threshold, the comparator output is low.
This means the decision is made that the received signal carries logic low (or)
„o‟
(iv) Buffers:
A buffer transfers a logical signal from the input to output unchanged but
reshapes the electrical form of this signal. Typically, this is an emitter
follower circuit.
(v) Clock Recovery:
Clock Recovery extracts timing information from the data stream and
helps the decision circuit to generate clean and reshaped differential DATA
and NON-DATA outputs.
(vi) Signal Detector:
Signal detector is an essential alarm circuit. It monitors the level of the
incoming signal and generation a logic low signal when the SNR is not
sufficient.
(vii) Monitoring circuits:
Input monitoring circuit is used to monitor the voltage drop produced by
photo current flowing through a resistor, allows engineer to keep tabs on
input power.
The flag signal from a signal detector circuit watches for a possible SNR
lost situation