ENEE 691: Optical Communication Systems

Course Goals:

This course provides an introduction to the properties of advanced components, such as semiconductor lasers, optical amplifiers, detectors, and optical fiber, used in state- of-the art optical communication systems and discusses their impact on overall system performance.

Course Prerequisite:

None, but the following courses are recommended: ENEE 681, ENEE 793.

Topic Prerequisite:

Ray optics and Maxwell's equations description of propagation in multi-mode and single-mode optical fibers. Dispersion and lasers in fibers. Description of LED's and semiconductor bulk and quantum well lasers: properties, theory of operation, modulation characteristics, modal properties of Fabry-Perot, DFB and DBR lasers. Properties of optical amplifiers. Properties of p-i-n and APO detectors, receiver noise and sensitivity. Bit-error-rate and sensitivity degradation. Systems performance and architecture.

Recommended Textbook

Fiber-Optic Communication Systems by Govind P. Agrawal (Wiley, 1992), 445 pp.

References:

1. Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices, Palab Bhattacharya (Prentice Hall, 1994), 535 pp.
2. Optical Communication Systems, John Gowar (Prentice Hall, 2nd edition, 1993), 696 pp.
3. Integrated Optoelectronics, M. Dagenais, R.F. Leheny, and J. Crow (Academic Press, 1995), 686 pp.
4. Fundamental of Photonics, B.E.A. Saleh and M.C. Teich (Wiley, 1991), 966 pp.
5. Optical Electronics, Amnon Yariv (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1985, 3rd edition), 552 pp.
6. Quantum Electronics, Amnon Yariv (Wiley, 1989, 3rd edition), 676 pp.
7. Fiber Optic Networks, Paul E. Green, Jr. (Prentice Hall, 1993), 513 pp.
8. Optoelectronics and Lightwave Technology, J.E. Midwinter and Y.L Guo (Wiley, 1992), 300 pp.
9. Optical Integrated Circuits}, H. Nishihara, M. Haruna, and T. Suhara (McGraw Hill, 1989), 374 pp.
10. Long-Wavelength Semiconductor Lasers, G.P. Agrawal and N.K. Dutta (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1986), 473 pp.
11. Optical Fiber TelecommunicationsII, S.E. Miller and Ivan P. Kaminow, eds. (Academic Press, 1988), 995 pp. Optical Waveguide Theory}, A.W. Snyder and J.D. Love (Chapman and Hall, 1983), 734 pp.

Core Topics:

• Optical Waveguides. Optical properties of optical fiber. Propagation in step-index and graded-index circular waveguide; geometrical description. Dispersion in fiber: material, waveguide, group velocity; pulse broadening. Loss in fibers. Nonlinear optical effects in fibers.
• Optical Sources and Transmitters. Review of basic semiconductor properties. Semiconductor materials. The p-n junction and carrier injection. Double heterostructure. Light-emitting diodes. Injection lasers: Fabry-Perot, DFB and DBR lasers. Semiconductor laser properties and theory of operation. Quantum well lasers. Fast modulation of lasers. External modulation of lasers. Optical transmitters. Optical amplifiers. Optical Detectors and Receivers. Optical Detectors and Receivers. Photodiodies: p-n, p-i-n, APD.
• Receivers. Receiver noise: shot noise, thermal noise, p-i-n and APD receivers. Receivers sensitivity; bit-error rate. Sensitivity degradation: extinction ratio, rin, timing jitter.
• Systems Performance. System architecture: point-to-point links, distribution networks, LANs. Operating wavelength and system limitations: loss and dispersion limited. System design: power and rise-time budget. Sources of power penalty: modal noise, mode-partition noise, dispersion broadening, chirp, reflections. Multichannel communication systems.

Comments:

Students in sections of this course can fabricate VLSI chips via MOSIS.

Last Updated:

June 7, 1995, M. Dagenais