A Multi-Gb/s Self-Synchronized Optical Regenerator Using a 1.55 μm Traveling-Wave Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

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Abstract
We demonstrate experimentally and by computer simulation that the semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are capable of performing a variety of optoelectronic (OE) functions useful in fiber-optic networks and optical signal processors at multi-Gb/s rates[1,2]. An example of OE functions obtained is a complete optical regeneration of data pulses which are amplified, retimed, and reshaped in optical domain. In this paper, we present results on a 1.55 μm traveling-wave (TW) SOA optical regenerator with a novel clock recovery circuit for retiming and synchronization. The regenerator operates at a 2.5 Gb/s rate, with a 10 dB fiber-to-fiber gain. In contrast to the 1.31 μm SOA reflective regenerator reported recently[1] at 560 Mb/s, the present amplifier is a packaged 1.55 μm traveling-wave amplifier[3], which operates at much higher bit rate, higher gain, and includes the self-synchronized clock recovery circuit.