Design and analysis of SOA-MZI based optical digital circuits for high speed optical networks

Abstract

This paper explores using Semiconductor Optical Amplifier assisted Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (SOA-MZI) configuration for designing various all-optical digital circuits. A specific focus on the design and analysis of all-optical inverters, decimal-to-binary code converters, and hexa decimal-to-binary code converters operating at a speed of 10 Gbps is given. These circuits employ OR, XOR, and NOR gates. The SOA-MZI configuration capitalizes on the nonlinear properties of the SOA to achieve all-optical logic functions. Phase modulation can be transformed into intensity modulation by incorporating the SOA within an interferometer setup and using 3-dB couplers. The Cross-Phase Modulation (XPM) technique, which offers superior performance compared to other types of SOA non-linearity, is employed to make the incoming signal insensitive to polarization. The system was analyzed using an optisystem. The performance achieved was 0.0109 in terms of Eye height, 3.45 e−70 in terms of Bit Error Rate (BER), and 17.66 in terms of Q-factor.