CN114006244A

CN114006244A - Ultra-small hot-plug extension C-band ASE light source and optical module

Info

Publication number: CN114006244A
Application number: CN202111166380.2A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 王宇航
Original assignee: O Net Communications Shenzhen Ltd
Current assignee: O Net Technologies Shenzhen Group Co Ltd
Priority date: 2021-09-30
Filing date: 2021-09-30
Publication date: 2022-02-01

Abstract

The invention provides the technical field of optical modules, and particularly relates to a subminiature ASE light source capable of hot-plugging and expanding a C waveband and an optical module. The ASE light source comprises a loss optical fiber, a first erbium fiber, a first integrated module, a second erbium fiber and a second integrated module which are sequentially arranged, and further comprises a pump laser and a pump optical splitter, wherein the pump optical splitter is respectively connected with the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber, and the first integrated module or/and the second integrated module are standardized modules. Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that the product standardization is realized through the optical path structure, different communication systems can directly use modules, such as a first integrated module and a second integrated module, and the increase of the demand of the application scene of the modules is increased; meanwhile, the first integrated module and the second integrated module are miniaturized integrated modules, so that the power consumption is low, the system does not need to consider extra heat dissipation design, and the use is flexible.

Description

Ultra-small hot-plug extension C-band ASE light source and optical module

Technical Field

The invention provides the technical field of optical modules, and particularly relates to a subminiature ASE light source capable of hot-plugging and expanding a C waveband and an optical module.

Background

With the rise and rapid development of new services and applications such as 5G, cloud computing, Internet of things and the like in recent years, the network traffic demand is rapidly increased. The total data traffic of the global mobile data and fixed broadband networks from 2017 to 2023 will continue to grow at a annual composite growth rate of 31%. Only by taking the mobile internet traffic in China domestic telecommunication service in the first half of 2020 as an example, the accumulated traffic reaches 745 hundred million GB, and the traffic is increased by 34.5% on a par. The transmission capacity of the communication system is increasing at present.

The expansion of the transmission capacity generally has two methods, one is to increase the deployment number of optical fibers, and the other is to improve the single-fiber transmission capacity. Wherein newly deployed optical fibers are less adopted due to long period, high comprehensive cost and the like; the frequency spectrum bandwidth expansion based on the DWDM technology has the advantages of convenient and flexible implementation, high economic benefit and the like, and is a preferred expansion scheme at present, and the expansion from the C wave band and the L wave band to the C + +, L + + wave bands is a technical scheme which is mainly considered in the industry at present. By 7 months in 2021, the C + + band expansion is basically commercialized.

With the use of C + + band signals, devices matched with the communication system need to be expanded from a C band to a C + + band, and a large amount of C + + band ASE light sources are required for testing C + + band passive devices; meanwhile, in the application of the communication system, the ASE light source is used for making up the idle channel power, so that the requirements of a small-size and low-power consumption C + + ASE light source module are derived.

At present, most C-band ASE light source equipment products exist in the market, the main body part is a gain medium erbium-doped optical fiber and a pump laser, and an APC circuit is adopted to ensure the stability of output power by controlling the output of the pump laser and can adjust the output power within a certain range. The C wave band/C + + wave band ASE light source uses the erbium-doped fiber + pump laser scheme, and the temperature control and the power control are added, so that the characteristics of low cost, high output, stable power and the like can be realized, and the optical fiber sensor, the optical fiber gyroscope, the device test and the like are widely applied to the fields of optical fiber sensing, optical fiber gyros, device tests and the like.

However, most of the C-band ASE light source products in the market are device type products, have large size and high power consumption, can be used as a passive device test device, but cannot be used in a communication system.

Disclosure of Invention

The technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide a subminiature hot-plug extended C-band ASE light source and an optical module, aiming at the above-mentioned defects of the prior art, and solving the problems that in the current market, most of C-band ASE light source products are device type products, have large size and high power consumption, can be used as a passive device test device, but cannot be used in a communication system.

The technical scheme adopted by the invention for solving the technical problems is as follows: the ASE light source comprises a loss optical fiber, a first erbium fiber, a first integrated module, a second erbium fiber and a second integrated module which are sequentially arranged, and further comprises a pumping laser and a pumping optical splitter, wherein the pumping optical splitter is respectively connected with the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber, and the first integrated module or/and the second integrated module are/is a standardized module; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the pump laser generates pump laser which is transmitted to the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber to generate ASE signals and amplify the ASE signals;

the optical signal sequentially passes through a loss optical fiber, a first erbium fiber, a first integration module, a second erbium fiber and a second integration module and is output outwards, the loss optical fiber absorbs reverse ASE signal power generated by the first erbium fiber, the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber form a double-stage amplification optical path of the optical signal, the first integration module performs gain flattening filtering on the optical signal, and the second integration module monitors output optical power and performs APC power adjustment.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the first integrated module comprises an integrated signal optical combiner, a reverse optical isolator and a multi-membrane gain flattening filter.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the first integrated module forms a first package structure sized to be less than 2.6mm in diameter and less than 30mm in length.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the second integrated module comprises a signal optical splitter and an optical power monitor which are integrally arranged, and the signal optical splitter splits optical signals and respectively transmits the optical signals to the optical power monitor and outputs the optical signals to the outside.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the second integrated module forms a second package structure sized to be less than 1.8mm in diameter and less than 14mm in length.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber are 80/165um type erbium-doped fibers with high absorption coefficients, and the high absorption coefficients are more than 40 dB/m.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the pump laser adopts a miniaturized non-refrigeration pump laser with a 3PIN PIN.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the pumping mode of the pump laser adopts a reverse pumping mode.

Wherein, the preferred scheme is: the first integrated module or/and the second integrated module is/are replaceable standardized modules, and different parameters or types are set according to requirements.

The technical scheme adopted by the invention for solving the technical problems is as follows: an optical module is provided, which comprises a housing, an ASE light source packaged in the housing, and a control unit or a control transmission pin connected with a pump laser of the ASE light source and a second integrated module.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that the product standardization is realized through the optical path structure, different communication systems can directly use modules, such as a first integrated module and a second integrated module, and the increase of the demand of the application scene of the modules is increased; meanwhile, the first integrated module and the second integrated module are miniaturized integrated modules, so that the power consumption is low, the system does not need to consider extra heat dissipation design, the system has the advantages of flexible use and plug and play, the occupied space is small, the use is flexible, and the design difficulty of the board card of the communication system is reduced.

Drawings

The invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings and examples, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view illustrating a structure of a subminiature hot-swap extended C-band ASE light source according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a first integrated module of the present invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a second integrated module according to the present invention.

Detailed Description

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in fig. 1, the present invention provides a preferred embodiment of a subminiature hot-swap extended C-band ASE light source.

The ultra-small hot-plug extended C-band ASE light source comprises a loss fiber 110, a first erbium fiber 120, a first integration module 130, a second erbium fiber 140 and a second integration module 150 which are sequentially arranged, and further comprises a pump laser 310 and a pump splitter 320, wherein the pump splitter 320 is respectively connected with the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140, and the first integration module 130 or/and the second integration module 150 are standardized modules; wherein, the pump laser 310 generates pump laser light and transmits the pump laser light to the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140 to generate ASE signal and amplify the signal; the optical signal sequentially passes through the loss optical fiber 110, the first erbium fiber 120, the first integration module 130, the second erbium fiber 140 and the second integration module 150 and is output outwards, the loss optical fiber 110 absorbs the reverse ASE signal power generated by the first erbium fiber 120, the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140 form a double-stage amplification optical path of the optical signal, the first integration module 130 performs gain flattening filtering on the optical signal, and the second integration module 150 monitors the output optical power and performs APC power adjustment.

Specifically, the ASE light source has two optical paths, a main optical path and a pump laser path, the main optical path is at least provided with an optical input end 210 and an optical output end 220, the optical input end 210 receives an optical signal and inputs the optical signal into the main optical path, and the optical signal is output from the optical output end 220 after internal optical processing; the pump laser path is formed by respectively injecting the pump laser generated by the pump laser 310 into the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140, and performing the optical processing on the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140.

In an embodiment, the main optical path is sequentially arranged from the optical input end 210 to the optical output end 220 as the loss optical fiber 110, the first erbium fiber 120, the first integration module 130, the second erbium fiber 140 and the second integration module 150, the optical signal is incident into the first erbium fiber 120 through the loss optical fiber 110, in the first erbium fiber 120, due to the joint output of the optical signal and the pump laser, an ASE signal is generated and amplified, the reverse ASE signal power is incident into the loss optical fiber 110, the amplified optical signal is incident into the first integration module 130, and the saturation of the optical fiber is reduced, thereby reducing the difficulty of the optical path process; the loss optical fiber 110 is used for absorbing the reverse ASE signal power generated by the loss first erbium fiber 120, so that the forward ASE signal light is more stable and reliable, and the production and manufacturing difficulty is reduced; the first integrated module 130 is a miniaturized integrated device and has a gain flattening filtering function, and an optical signal is incident to the second erbium fiber 140 after being subjected to gain flattening filtering, so that the normal-temperature flatness of the complete machine ASE light source can achieve an index smaller than 1.0 dB; in the second erbium fiber 140, because the optical signal and the pump laser are output together, an ASE signal is generated and amplified, the reverse ASE signal power is incident into the loss fiber 110, and the amplified optical signal is incident into the second integrated module 150, so that the optical fiber saturation is reduced, and the difficulty of optical path process manufacturing is reduced; the second integration module 150 is a miniaturized integration device, and implements monitoring of output optical power and APC power adjustment.

Regarding the lossy fiber 110, the conventional ASE light source is often located at the lossy fiber 110, and devices such as a total reflection mirror or a circulator are used to reflect the reverse ASE light generated by the first erbium fiber 120 back to the optical path to improve the amplification efficiency of the ASE signal light, but since the power of the reverse ASE signal light is closely related to the fiber length and the optical path loss, when the length of the first erbium fiber 120 is deviated or the power of the first erbium fiber 120 is changed due to the bending loss, the shape of the output port spectrum of the ASE light source is affected, the QSFP package is small in space, which is easy to introduce the above problem, and in order to solve the problem, the lengths of the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140 need to be adjusted repeatedly, thereby increasing the difficulty of production control. Accordingly, the present invention solves the above problems with the first integrated module 130, and the detailed description refers to the following.

Among them, as for the ASE light source, ASE (amplified spontaneous emission) light source is designed specifically for production and laboratory experiments. The main body of the light source is a gain medium erbium doped fiber and a high performance pump laser 310. The unique atc and apc circuits ensure output power stabilization by controlling the output of the pump laser 310. By adjusting the apc, the output power can be adjusted within a certain range. Simple and intelligent operation and remote control. The circuit of the APC power regulation, namely automatic power control, relies on a PIN tube in the laser to detect the output light power of LD as feedback, the sampling resistor converts the current into voltage, then the voltage is amplified by a differential amplifier, and the bias current of the laser is regulated by a proportional-integral controller.

Wherein, QSFP (Quad Small Form-factor plug): the quad SFP interface (QSFP), which was created to meet the market demand for higher density, high speed pluggable solutions.

Therefore, by the above optical path structure, product standardization is achieved, different communication systems can directly use modules, such as the first integrated module 130 and the second integrated module 150, and the increase of the module application scenarios increases. Meanwhile, since the first integrated module 130 and the second integrated module 150 are miniaturized integrated modules, power consumption is low, the system does not need to consider additional heat dissipation design, and the communication system has the advantages of flexible use, plug and play, small occupied space and flexible use, and reduces the difficulty in designing the board card of the communication system. And as a standard product of a communication protocol, the passive optical device realizes product standardization, including electrical interface definition, a software communication protocol and the like, realizes functions of miniaturization, low power consumption, high output power, hot plugging, ASE spectrum shape flattening and the like, and designs and develops a plurality of novel miniaturized passive optical devices for realizing miniaturization requirements.

In one embodiment, an optical module is provided, which includes a housing, an ASE light source enclosed in the housing, and a control unit or a control transmission pin connected to a pump laser 310 of the ASE light source and the second integrated module 150, and the standardization of the optical module product is achieved by the cooperation of the housing and the ASE light source, and meanwhile, the APC power control is achieved by using an MCU scheme through the control unit or the control transmission pin. Meanwhile, the product can be applied to the fields of optical measurement systems, optical component/device spectrum tests, optical sensing, optical fiber communication systems and the like.

In one embodiment, the first erbium fiber 120 and the second erbium fiber 140 are 80/165um type erbium doped fibers with high absorption coefficient, which is greater than 40 dB/m. An erbium-doped fiber (EDFA) is an optical fiber doped with a small amount of rare earth element erbium, which can amplify light in the range of 1550nm when pumped by an external light source, thereby reducing the saturation of the fiber and the difficulty of the fabrication of the optical path process.

In one embodiment, the pump laser 310 employs a miniaturized 3PIN uncooled pump laser 310. And the pumping mode of the pump laser 310 adopts a reverse pumping mode. Pumping, among other things, is a process of using light to raise (or "pump") electrons from a lower energy level to a higher energy level in an atom or molecule. Commonly used in laser structures, the laser medium is pumped to achieve population inversion.

The pump laser 310 adopts a miniaturized 3PIN PIN uncooled pump laser 310, the size is small, the power consumption is low, the power consumption of the whole machine can be controlled to be less than 1.5W, the pumping mode adopts a reverse pumping mode, the amplification efficiency is improved, and the output power of an ASE light source can reach 18 dBm.

As illustrated in fig. 2, the present invention provides a preferred embodiment of the first integrated module 130.

The first integrated module 130 includes an integrated signal optical combiner 131, an inverse optical isolator 132, and a multi-film gain flattening filter 133.

After the optical signal and the pump laser are combined by the signal optical combiner 131, the combined light enters the reverse optical isolator 132 and is used in cooperation with the loss optical fiber 110, so that the forward ASE signal light is more stable and reliable; the multi-film gain flattening filter 133 realizes gain flattening filtering of optical signals, so that the normal temperature flatness of the ASE light source of the whole machine can realize the index of less than 1.0 dB.

In one embodiment, the first integrated module 130 forms a first package structure sized to be less than 2.6mm in diameter and less than 30mm in length. Therefore, the first integrated module 130 has the characteristics of small size and high functional integration, and although the device design difficulty is high, the design requirement of the whole system is greatly reduced.

The order of the signal optical combiner 131, the inverse optical isolator 132, and the multi-film gain flattening filter 133 may be set according to specific situations.

As illustrated in fig. 3, the present invention provides a preferred embodiment of the second integrated module 150.

The second integrated module 150 includes an integrated signal optical splitter 151 and an optical power monitor 152, where the signal optical splitter 151 splits an optical signal and respectively inputs the optical signal to the optical power monitor 152 and outputs the optical signal to the outside.

The optical amplifier may further include an optical combiner for combining the optical signal and the pump laser, or the optical splitter 151 may be directly used to combine the optical signal and the pump laser light and then split the combined light into two light beams, which are incident to the optical power monitor 152, monitor the output optical power, adjust the APC power, and emit the optical signal to the optical output 220.

The second integrated module 150 forms a second package structure sized to be less than 1.8mm in diameter and less than 14mm in length. Therefore, the second integrated module 150 has the characteristics of small size and high functional integration, and although the device design difficulty is high, the design requirement of the whole system is greatly reduced.

In one embodiment, the first integrated module 130 or/and the second integrated module 150 are replaceable standardized modules and are provided with different parameters or types according to requirements. As long as the first integrated module 130 or/and the second integrated module 150 are/is designed as required, different overall systems can be applied, and the complexity of the ultra-small hot-plugging expansion C-band ASE light source is reduced.

The above description is only for the purpose of illustrating the preferred embodiments of the present invention and is not to be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention, but rather as embodying the invention in a wide variety of equivalent variations and modifications within the scope of the appended claims.

Claims

1. A subminiature ASE light source for hot-swap extension of C-band, comprising: the ASE light source comprises a loss optical fiber, a first erbium fiber, a first integrated module, a second erbium fiber and a second integrated module which are sequentially arranged, and further comprises a pump laser and a pump optical splitter, wherein the pump optical splitter is respectively connected with the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber, and the first integrated module or/and the second integrated module is/are standardized modules; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

2. The ASE light source of claim 1, wherein: the first integrated module comprises an integrated signal optical combiner, a reverse optical isolator and a multi-membrane gain flattening filter.

3. The ASE light source of claim 2, wherein: the first integrated module forms a first package structure sized to be less than 2.6mm in diameter and less than 30mm in length.

4. The ASE light source of claim 1, wherein: the second integrated module comprises a signal optical splitter and an optical power monitor which are integrally arranged, and the signal optical splitter splits optical signals and respectively transmits the optical signals to the optical power monitor and outputs the optical signals to the outside.

5. ASE light source according to claim 4, characterized in that: the second integrated module forms a second package structure sized to be less than 1.8mm in diameter and less than 14mm in length.

6. The ASE light source of claim 1, wherein: the first erbium fiber and the second erbium fiber are 80/165um type erbium-doped fibers with high absorption coefficients, and the high absorption coefficients are more than 40 dB/m.

7. The ASE light source of claim 1, wherein: the pump laser adopts a miniaturized non-refrigeration pump laser with a 3PIN PIN.

8. ASE light source according to claim 1 or 7, characterized in that: the pumping mode of the pump laser adopts a reverse pumping mode.

9. The ASE light source of claim 1, wherein: the first integrated module or/and the second integrated module is/are replaceable standardized modules, and different parameters or types are set according to requirements.

10. An optical module, characterized in that: the optical module comprises a housing, an ASE light source according to any of claims 1-9 enclosed in the housing, and a control unit or control transmission pin connected to the pump laser and the second integrated module of the ASE light source.