Recent Advances in Photonic Devices for RF/Wireless Communication Applications

This presentation gives an overview of the requirements of the photonic components in their insertion in applications such as CATV, antenna remoting and base station connections in wireless communication systems. While the driving force for their use is bandwidth, the eventual limiting factors would be cost and reliability. The presentation reviews the advances in the state-of-the-art photonics devices for analog links such as laser diodes, high power lasers, external modulators, semiconductor amplifiers, erbium doped fiber amplifier, and photodetectors. Comparisons will also be made regarding the direct modulation scheme versus the external modulation scheme. Research frontiers in external optical modulators will be described.