Open AccessReconfigurable multilevel transmitter using monolithically integrated quad Mach-Zehnder IQ modulator for optical 16-QAM and 8-PSK generation
Author(s) -
Guo Wei Lu,
Takahide Sakamoto,
Akira Chibá,
Tetsuya Kawanishi,
Tetsuya Miyazaki,
Kaoru Higuma,
Masaaki Sudo,
Junichiro Ichikawa
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.19.005596
Subject(s) - quadrature amplitude modulation , phase shift keying , transmitter , qam , electro optic modulator , computer science , electronic engineering , phase modulation , bit error rate , physics , optics , telecommunications , optical modulator , engineering , phase noise , decoding methods , channel (broadcasting)
We propose and demonstrate a reconfigurable multilevel transmitter using a monolithically-integrated quad Mach-Zehnder in-phase/quadrature (QMZ-IQ) modulator with binary driving electronics. Different from previous parallel-integrated quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) transmitter solutions, only one electrode is required to adjust the relative phase offset among embedded sub-Mach-Zehnder modulators in the proposed IQ superstructure. By feeding different RF driving electronics and operating the integrated modulator as different bias conditions, different advanced multilevel modulation formats, such as QAM and 8-ary phase-shift keying (8-PSK), could be synthesized. In this paper, a 40-Gb/s 16-QAM and a 30-Gb/s 8-PSK are generated using the proposed multilevel transmitter, respectively. Offline digital processing is employed for bit-error rates estimation and constellation reconstruction.