Dual laser fast wavelength switched optical transmitter

Increasingly sophisticated sensor systems are being deployed on avionic platforms, driving the need for Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) avionic optical backbone to support high bandwidth communications. The key attraction of DWDM on aerospace platforms is the ability to engineer network architectures with high reliability, redundancy and survivability. A number of WDM-LAN architectures [1–3] are being studied, and in particular, network implementations utilizing tunable WDM transmitters have emerged as suitable candidates. In order to dynamically route traffic, high speed switching will enable wavelength addressing to replace electronic switching. One of the most versatile approaches, optical packet switching will require optical wavelength tuning on packet-length timescale. <10 ns wavelength switching time is sufficient to meet the requirements of the most demanding packet switching applications. This work involves a study of the switching behavior of sampled-grating DBR lasers, in particular the trade-off between switching speed and wavelength accuracy. A dual laser architecture capable of breaking this speed-accuracy trade-off is demonstrated.