Patent · US Expired

High dynamic range optical receiver

US7242871B2 · kind B2 · utility

9Cited by
13References
21Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateJul 29, 2003
Grant dateJul 10, 2007
Priority date
Expiry dateApr 19, 2025

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
  • CPC primaryH04B10/6931
  • WIPO fieldTelecommunications
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An optical receiver, for use for instance in an analog optical communications system such as a return path in cable television, operates over a wide range of input power to its photodetector. This is accomplished by providing in the optical receiver a series of RF amplifier stages where at least one of the stages includes a fixed attenuator and a parallel amplifier with switches suitably connected so that, at any one time, only one of the fixed attenuator or the amplifier is in the signal path. The switches are controlled so that the dynamic range of the optical receiver is improved in order to make gain reduction more accurate. Hence by redirecting the RF signal path to either the attenuator or amplifier of the amplifier stage, excessive noise and distortion by the amplifier stage are eliminated or reduced.

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