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Optical amplifier claims no distortion

Edited by the Electronicstalk editorial team Oct 3, 2001

Kamelian has unveiled the industry's first variable gain optical linear amplifier (OLA) which allows multiwavelength amplification with no distortion.

Kamelian has unveiled the industry's first variable-gain optical linear amplifier (OLA) which allows multiwavelength amplification with no distortion.

The device, based on the company's established indium phosphide semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) technology offers a cost-effective alternative to EDFAs (erbium-doped fibre amplifiers).

The company expects that they will be a key enabler for reducing the cost and increasing performance of fibre-optic networks, particularly in the burgeoning metro systems sector.

The OLA is being demonstrated at the European Conference on Optical Communications (ECOC 2001) which takes place in Amsterdam from 30th September to 4th October 2001.

Paul May, CEO of Kamelian, stated, "Traditionally, SOAs have been most effective in single-wavelength applications.

This technology breakthrough from Kamelian offers the prospect of multichannel inline amplification between or within nodes at a cost which will be very attractive for use in metro networks, an area where the use of EDFAs cannot easily be justified".

Optical amplification is a key technology in modern telecommunication systems and SOAs can provide a low cost and small footprint solution.

Unlike other linear optical amplifiers the new Kamelian OLA technology allows the gain to be varied while ensuring linear operation and maintaining high output power.

This will enable telecommunications networks to reconfigure the power of optical channels dynamically in response to variations in power levels caused by upstream changes in the network.

The Kamelian OLA devices will offer a wide dynamic range, thereby allowing them to cope with worst-case loss scenarios and extreme overload conditions.

When operated with automatic gain control, the devices will maintain a specific output power by introducing variable gain or loss, a feature not possible with standard SOAs or EDFAs.

"The variable gain capability offered by our new OLA technology will allow power equalisation at different points throughout the network, something which other linear optical amplifiers are not able to provide", said Ivan Andonovic, CTO of Kamelian.

"In an all-optical network scenario, wavelengths experience different paths through the network.

When used as an inline amplifier, variable gain allows users to equalise power levels for bands of wavelengths at crucial points throughout the network".