An Ultrahigh Speed Demultiplexer for Optical Communication Systems

Elsicon Incorporated proposes to develop an optical demultiplexer appropriate for use in high bandwidth fiber-optic communication systems. The demultiplexer will be capable of reducing an optical input bit stream with an aggregate bit rate of greater than 100 Gbits/sec down to a 1 Gbit/sec baseband rate. Therefore, by distributing the full serial data stream among an array of these devices, ultrahigh bandwidth data can be read in parallel using conventional electronics. The key to this demultiplexer will be Elsicon's innovative and proprietary optical switch design. This design will use readily available commercial components along with well-known concepts in linear and nonlinear optics to produce a device that functions as an ultrafast optical gate. We will fabricate a prototype optical demultiplexer based on low-cost commercially available components. The optical demultiplexer's response will be characterized for switching speed, on-off contrast, clock energy, throughput, and sensitivity. The results of this Phase I proposal will be used in Phase II to fabricate packaged demultiplexers ready for incorporation into optical communications systems.