Development of a photonic integrated transceiver chip for WDM transmission

Abstract

With the observed expansion of fiber-optic networks and the movement of line terminals towards the individual customer the need for cost-effective fabrication of customer access modules for interactive services arises. Monolithic integration of the module functions on InP is frequently seen as a means to reduce module costs. Here we describe a generic fabrication process for InP photonic integrated circuits and demonstrate an initial transceiver chip with transmit, receive and 1300/1530 nm wavelength division multiplexing functions. The chip output power reaches 1 mW at 1530 nm with a laser threshold current of 20 mA. The detection efficiency at 1300 nm is 0.1 A/W of fiber power. >