High Temperature Wavelength Division Network for Avionic Applications

Growth in demand for bandwidth within avionic systems has renewed interest in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) topologies. Within an Avionics context, systems are specified for operation from -55°C to 125°C. This increased operational temperature range exceeds the capability of commercial off the shelf components. Here, we have investigated the design and operation of a dense WDM network over an extended temperature range. The implementation uses spectrum sliced seed sources in combination with reflective semiconductor optical amplifier (RSOA) end nodes. We report on the performance of a single polarization ridge waveguide RSOA with an Al containing quaternary active region. Two different designs of RSOA have been evaluated: a standard bulk heterostructure device and the single polarization ridge waveguide device design for high temperature operation. It has been shown that a SS-WDM network can be implemented using the RWG-RSOA and maintain a BER of 10^-9 at 75 °C allowing for 6 dB excess loss to account for component and connector aging. This offers an extension of at least 20°C when compared to the standard bulk active RSOA. In addition, a novel passive cooling method, devised to compensate for short term excursions outside the maximum thermal operating envelope, has been investigated. This technique uses a phase change material as a passive, cooling mechanism. The performance of this method is contrasted against a thermoelectric cooler considering the influence of power consumption on fuel requirements for a Boeing 737-800.