Monolithic Four-Channel (QUAD) Integrated Widely Tunable Transmitter in Indium Phosphide

Tunable and array-based multichannel chip-scale optical transmitter devices have revolutionized the pluggable module telecom market, by enabling excellent performance with great cost and size reduction. In this paper, we report on a novel, four-channel, monolithic widely tunable transmitter device (QUAD) in indium phosphide. This device is based on monolithic integration of four widely tunable externally modulated lasers, with a single output waveguide. The QUAD device is designed to operate at 55 °C, in order to reduce the power consumption of the cooler. A full QUAD module was developed and characterized, demonstrating 10 Gb/s simultaneous operation of all four transmitters, with >30 nm tuning range, and error-free operation. Through system-level experiments, the regenerative nature of the QUAD transmitter has been demonstrated.