IEC TR 61292-9:2013

IEC/TR 61292-9 ®
Edition 1.0 2013-11
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Optical amplifiers –
Part 9: Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)

IEC/TR 61292-9:2013(E)
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IEC/TR 61292-9 ®
Edition 1.0 2013-11
TECHNICAL
REPORT
colour
inside
Optical amplifiers –
Part 9: Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs)

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
PRICE CODE
S
ICS 33.160.10; 33.180.30 ISBN 978-2-8322-1169-4

– 2 – TR 61292-9 © IEC:2013(E)

CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 4

INTRODUCTION . 6

1 Scope . 7

2 Terms, definitions, abbreviations and symbols . 7

2.1 Terms and definitions . 7

2.2 Abbreviations . 7

2.3 Symbols . 8

3 Specific features of SOAs . 9
3.1 SOA chips . 9
3.2 SOA modules . 11
3.3 Gain ripple . 11
3.4 Polarization dependent gain (PDG) . 13
3.4.1 General . 13
3.4.2 Polarization insensitive SOAs . 13
3.5 Noise figure (NF) . 13
3.6 Lifetime of carriers . 14
3.7 Nonlinear effects . 14
4 Measurement of SOA output power and PDG . 14
4.1 Narrow-band versus broadband light source . 14
4.2 Recommended set-up for output power and PDG measurements . 15
4.3 Examples of measurement results obtained by using the recommended
set-up . 16
Annex A (informative) Applications of SOAs . 19
A.1 General . 19
A.2 Polarization mode of SOAs . 19
A.3 Reach extender for GPON . 19
A.4 Pre-amplifier in transceivers for 100 GE . 19
A.5 Monolithic integration of SOAs . 20
A.6 Reflective SOAs (RSOAs) . 21
Bibliography . 22

Figure 1 – Schematic diagram of the typical SOA chip . 9

Figure 2 – Example of gain dependency on forward current of the SOA chip . 9
Figure 3 – Schematic top view of a typical SOA chip with and without an angled
waveguide structure . 10
Figure 4 – Schematic top view of the typical SOA module . 11
Figure 5 – Schematic diagram of the optical feedback inside the SOA chip . 12
Figure 6 – Schematic diagram of gain ripple . 12
Figure 7 – Output power and PDG dependence on the wavelength of the SOA chip . 14
Figure 8 – Recommended measurement set-up for optical power and PDG of SOA
modules . 15
Figure 9 – Recommended measurement set-up for optical power and PDG of SOA
chips . 16
Figure 10 – Optical power spectra of three different SOA chips. 16
Figure 11 – Output power and PDG of the SOA chip sample no. 1 as a function of I . 17
F
TR 61292-9 © IEC:2013(E) – 3 –

Figure 12 – Output power and PDG of the SOA chip sample no. 2 as a function of I . 17
F
Figure 13 – Output power and PDG of the SOA chip sample no. 3 as a function of I . 18

F
Figure A.1 – Schematic diagram of the receiver section of SOA-incorporated CFP

transceivers . 20

Figure A.2 – Schematic diagram of the DFB-LDs-array type wavelength tuneable LD . 20

Figure A.3 – Schematic diagram of the seeded WDM-PON system . 21

– 4 – TR 61292-9 © IEC:2013(E)

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.
The text of this technical report is based on the following documents:
Enquiry draft Report on voting
86C/1148/DTR 86C/1183/RVC
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 publication has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.

TR 61292-9 © IEC:2013(E) – 5 –

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 publication will remain unchanged until

the stability date indicated on the IEC web site under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data

related to the specific publication. At this date, the publication will be

• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or

• amended.
A bilingual version of this publication may be issued at a later date.

IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct
understanding of its contents. Users should therefore print this document using a
colour printer.
– 6 – TR 61292-9 © IEC:2013(E)

INTRODUCTION
Optical amplifiers (OAs) are necessary components as booster, line and pre-amplifiers for

current optical network systems. IEC TC86/SC86C, has published many standards for OAs

and most of them are focused on optical fibre amplifiers (OFAs), which are commonly

deployed in commercial optical network systems. Recently, semiconductor optical amplifiers

(SOAs) have attracted attention for applications in gigabit passive optical network (GPON)

and 100 Gbit Ethernet (GbE) systems. This is because SOA chips are as small as laser

diodes (LDs) and only require an electrical current.

Although SOAs for the 1 310 nm or 1 550 nm bands have been extensive
...