Electrical parallel-to-serial converter using MSM-PDs for optical communication networks

A new electrical parallel-to-serial converter (PSC) is proposed for optical communication networks. The PSC uses a simple circuit scheme that markedly reduces the fall time of a ordinary MSM-PD without degrading either its sensitivity or ease of fabrication. An InP-based 4:1 PSC is shown to convert 4-ch parallel electrical signals into a serial 10-Gbit/s 4-bit electrical signal when MSM-PDs in the PSC are optically triggered. It has several advantages including support of burst signal input, low driving voltage, compactness, ease of fabrication, and low power consumption. The electrical PSC is used in a new photonic PSC. By effectively combining electrical multiplexing with optical multiplexing, the photonic PSC can generate a 40-Gbit/s 16-bit optical packet from 16-ch parallel electrical signals with frame rates of 40 MHz. The electrical PSC is also applied to a label comparator for bypass/drop self-routing of optical packets. The label comparator, consisting of the 4:1 PSC and an electroabsorption modulator (EAM), properly processed 10-Gbit/s burst optical packets with no preamble even when a local address was changed at 40 MHz.