Patent · US Expired

Optical amplifiers

US5872650A · kind A · utility

15Cited by
13References
16Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateFeb 10, 1997
Grant dateFeb 16, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateFeb 10, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B2210/003
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A multiwavelength, multistage optical amplifier, which can be arranged in a cascade, substantially increases the degree of automatic power control (APC), multiwavelength APC (MAPC), and multiwavelength automatic gain control (MAGC), for at least two wavelengths. The multiwavelength, multistage optical amplifier or amplifier cascade has at least two spectrally different gain media (GM), i.e. first and second GM, connected in series for amplifying a signal having at least two wavelengths, i.e. first and second wavelengths. The first GM may be aluminosilicate erbium doped fiber, the second GM may be germanosilicate erbium doped optical fiber. The gain at the first wavelength is smaller than the gain at the second wavelength, while the signal power at the first wavelength is larger than the signal power at the second one, and vice versa. This may automatically compensate for loss tilt. The gain media may be homogeneously broadened.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.