IEC TR 61292-9:2017

IEC TR 61292-9 ®
Edition 2.0 2017-12
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Optical amplifiers –
Part 9: Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)
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IEC TR 61292-9 ®
Edition 2.0 2017-12
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Optical amplifiers –
Part 9: Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
ICS 33.160.10; 33.180.30 ISBN 978-2-8322-5134-8

– 2 – IEC TR 61292-9:2017 © IEC 2017
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4
INTRODUCTION . 6
1 Scope . 7
2 Normative references . 7
3 Terms, definitions, abbreviated terms and symbols . 7
3.1 Terms and definitions . 7
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 8
3.3 Symbols . 9
4 Specific features of SOAs . 9
4.1 SOA chips . 9
4.2 Gain ripple . 12
4.3 Polarization dependent gain (PDG) . 13
4.3.1 General . 13
4.3.2 Polarization insensitive SOAs . 14
4.4 Noise figure (NF) . 14
4.5 Lifetime of carriers . 14
4.6 Nonlinear effects . 14
5 Measurement of SOA output power and PDG . 15
5.1 Narrow-band versus broadband light source . 15
5.2 Recommended set-up for output power and PDG measurements . 16
5.3 Examples of measurement results obtained by using the recommended set-
up . 17
Annex A (informative) Applications of SOAs . 21
A.1 General . 21
A.2 Polarization mode of SOAs . 21
A.3 Reach extender for GPON . 21
A.4 Pre-amplifier in transceivers for 100 Gbit Ethernet . 21
A.5 Monolithic integration of SOAs . 22
A.6 Reflective SOAs (RSOAs) . 22
Bibliography . 24

Figure 1 – Schematic diagram of the typical SOA chip . 10
Figure 2 – Example of gain dependency on forward current of the SOA chip . 10
Figure 3 – Schematic top view of a typical SOA chip with and without an angled
waveguide structure . 11
Figure 4 – Schematic top view of the typical SOA module . 12
Figure 5 – Schematic diagram of the optical feedback inside the SOA chip . 12
Figure 6 – Schematic diagram of gain ripple . 13
Figure 7 – Output power and PDG dependence on the wavelength of the SOA chip . 15
Figure 8 – Recommended measurement set-up for optical power and PDG of SOA
modules . 16
Figure 9 – Recommended measurement set-up for optical power and PDG of SOA
chips . 17
Figure 10 – Optical power spectra of three different SOA chips. 18
Figure 11 – Output power and PDG of the SOA chip sample no. 1 as a function of I . 18
F
Figure 12 – Output power and PDG of the SOA chip sample no. 2 as a function of I . 19
F
Figure 13 – Output power and PDG of the SOA chip sample no. 3 as a function of I . 19
F
Figure A.1 – Schematic diagram of the receiver section of SOA-incorporated CFP
transceivers . 22
Figure A.2 – Schematic diagram of the DFB-LDs-array type wavelength tuneable LD . 22
Figure A.3 – Schematic diagram of the seeded WDM-PON system . 23

– 4 – IEC TR 61292-9:2017 © IEC 2017
INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
OPTICAL AMPLIFIERS –
Part 9: Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)

FOREWORD
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The main task of IEC technical committees is to prepare International Standards. However, a
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data of a different kind from that which is normally published as an International Standard, for
example "state of the art".
IEC TR 61292-9, which is a technical report, has been prepared by subcommittee 86C: Fibre
optic systems and active devices, of IEC technical committee 86: Fibre optics.
This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 2013. This edition
constitutes a technical revision.
This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the previous
edition:
a) addition of new terms;
b) clarification of noise figure definition.

The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Draft TR Report on voting
86C/1465/DTR 86C/1481/RVDTR
Full information on the voting for the approval of this technical report can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.
A list of all parts in the IEC 61292 series, published under the general title Optical amplifiers,
can be found on the IEC website.
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
A bilingual version of this publication may be issued at a later date.

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