Experimental Evaluation of All-Optical Asynchronous and Synchronous Memories

Experimental Evaluation of All-Optical Asynchronous
and Synchronous Memories
C. Reis(1), A. Maziotis(2), Ch. Kouloumentas(2), C. Stamatiadis(2), M. Bougioukos(2), N. Calabretta(3), P. Andre(1) ,

R. Dionisio(1), B.Neto(1), Harm. J. S. Dorren(3), H. Avramopoulos(2) and A. Teixeira(1)
(1)
Instituto de Telecomunicaes, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal [email protected]
(2)
National Technical University of Athens School of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
9 Iroon Polytechniou Street, Zografou 15773 Athens, Greece
(3)
Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherlands
Abstract We experimentally demonstrate the accuracy of and extinction ratio (ER), as well the potential for further
an all-optical S-R latch and an optical S-R flip-flop based optical integration.
on hybrid integrated Mach-Zehnder Interferometers, with In [8], an optical RAM memory exploiting the
Semiconductor Optical Amplifier in each arm (MZI-SOA). regeneration and integration proprieties of hybrid MZI-
The performance of both bistable devices will be studied SOAs was implemented with true random access
and compared in terms of extinction ratio and switching read/write capability.
times. In this paper, a performance comparison between two
optical bistable configurations, based on the same hybrid
Keywords: Optical switching, optical flip-flop, optical signal platform, will be conducted.
processing, semiconductor optical amplifier, Mach-Zenhder The paper is organized as follows. In Section II, the
interferometer (MZI), memory unit. optical S-R latch and the optical S-R flip-flop are
introduced and qualitatively assessed. In Section III,
quantitative achievements are presented and discussed.
I. Introduction
Optical packet switching (OPS) can offer increased
II. Optical S-R latch and optical S-R flip-flop
network capacity, with low power consumption [1].
Most of the optical bistable devices known in the
In comparison to electronic switching, OPS offers
literature are asynchronous S-R latches, and any change of
advantages in terms of transparency, foot-print and can
information in the inputs is transmitted, immediately, to
reduce latency for telecommunication networks [2].
the output, according to its truth table (Table 1), which not
Besides all the known applications that an optical
allows them to work as a finite state machine.
bistable device can fulfil such as clock dividers, optical
counters and shift registers, optical buffers are essential
R S Q
building blocks for implementing an all-optical packet
switch. 0 0 Last Q
An optical bistable have at least two stable states and 0 1 1
the information present at the inputs is transferred to the 1 0 0
output, according to its truth table. 1 1 Forbidden
An optical bistable is a sequential device therefore its
outputs not only depend of the input values in a Tab. 1: Truth table of S-R latch
considered instant, but also depend of information from a
previous state. Fig. 1 illustrates the experimental setup of the optical
Different technologies have been proposed to provide S-R latch. The integrated device comprises two coupled
optical buffering such as the use of, a SOA based Mach- MZI-SOA powered by two continuous wave (CW) input
Zenhder interferometer with a feedback loop [3], two signals at different wavelengths. The logic level obtained
coupled identical laser diodes [4], fiber-delay lines [5], in the output is determined by the dominant wavelength.
two coupled fiber ring lasers [6] or two coupled MZI- By injecting set and reset optical pulses, the dynamic
SOA [7]. operation occurs and the latch S-R toggles its logical state
Among these approaches, the ones that use active [7].
interferometric devices attracts increasing attention
because they require low energy, have high compactness
enabling of the latch, making the latch sensitive to the
values present in the set and reset inputs.
A synchronous all-optical S-R flip-flop, shown in
Fig.3, was implemented in [9] using two coupled fiber
ring lasers and additional logic gates exploiting the
nonlinear effects of semiconductor optical amplifiers
Fig. 1: Optical asynchronous S-R latch: MZM: Mach- (SOA).
Zehnder modulator; EDFA: Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier; The logic AND operation was realized using integrated
BPF: band pass filter; SOA: semiconductor optical amplifier; SOA-based MachZehnder interferometers, after balanced
PG: pattern generator. them.
The powers of the continuous wave signals (CW) used
In order to generate the set and reset optical pulses, an in MZI-SOA1 and MZI-SOA2 were set to adjust the gain
external cavity laser peaking at 1558,17 nm were used, of the SOAs and the outputs of AND1 and AND2 were
followed by a polarization controller and a Mach-Zehnder obtained at the switching ports of the MZI-SOAs.
external modulator. The NRZ data signal, generated by an
Anritsu MP 1763C, is then amplified by an Erbium Doped
Fiber Amplifier and split into two equal parts using a 3 dB
coupler.
Different set and reset patterns are obtained by
delaying the signals by 11,6ns.
The dynamic operation of the S-R latch was
experimentally demonstrated by toggling the state of the
latch through the injection of set and reset optical pulses,
as shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 3: Optical synchronous S-R Flip-Flop: MZM: Mach-

Zehnder modulator; EDFA: Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier;
BPF: band pass filter; SOA: semiconductor optical amplifier;
PG: pattern generator.
The truth table of the clocked S-R flip-flop is the same

as the asynchronous S-R latch but the information present
in the inputs of the bistable only produce effects on its
output throughout all the clock pulse period. If CLK = 0,
the flip-flop maintains its previous state (last Q).
The clock signal was generated by an external cavity
laser, peaking at 1562 nm and 13 dBm of optical power,
Fig. 2: Experimental results for asynchronous S-R latch: a) followed by a Mach-Zehnder optical modulator (MZM).
Set signal; b) Reset signal; c) Latch output. The vertical scale is The set and reset input signals were the same as the
arbitrary and the horizontal scale is 5ns/div. ones used to test the asynchronous bistable.
In Fig.4, we experimentally demonstrate the operation
The observed results in the oscilloscope are in of a synchronous all-optical Set-Reset (S-R) flip-flop. Fig.
agreement with the truth table for an asynchronous S-R 4 illustrates that only when the clock signal is in the high
latch. level the synchronous S-R flip-flop changes its state,
otherwise the flip-flop maintains its previous value.
In some applications, it is very important that exists a
synchronization signal responsible for controlling the
All-optical S-R All-optical S-
Figure of Merit Latch R Flip-Flop
Rise Time 1,029 ns 430 ps

Fall Time 857 ps 420 ps
Exctintion Ratio
12,7 dB 18 dB
(ER)
Tab.2: Comparison between asynchronous and synchronous

one-bit memories.
IV. Conclusions
An all-optical flip-flop is a key element for routing

optical packets or burst.
In this paper, we experimentally compared the
switching dynamics and system performance of two
bistable devices one asynchronous and the other
synchronous.
By analyzing the experimental results obtained, we can
conclude that synchronous bistables would be a better
choice because allow high output extinction ratios and
faster switching times.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the

Network of Excellence EURO-FOS funded by the
European Commission and by the Portuguese Scientific
Project PANORAMA (ADI 2009/003144).
V. References
[1] N. Calabretta et al., All-optical techniques enabling packet

Fig. 4 Experimental results for synchronous S-R flip-flop: a) switching with label processing and label rewriting,
Clock signal; b)Reset signal; c)SetClock; d) ResetClock; e) Journal of Telecommunications and Information
Technology, pp. 20-2, 2009(1). Invited paper.
Flip-Flop output. The vertical scale is arbitrary and the
[2] D. J. Blumenthal et al., Optical Packet Switching and
horizontal scale is 5ns/div for a) b) figures and 10 ns/div for Associated Optical Signal Processing, IEEE LEOS
c)d)e). Summer TuG2-17, November 2002.
[3} R. Clavero et al., "All-optical flip-flop based on an active
Mach-Zehnder interferometer with a feedback loop", Optics
III. Quantitative results for bistable devices Letters, vol. 30, no. 21, pp. 2861-2863, November 2005.
[4] M.T. Hill et al., All-optical flip-flop based on coupled
The following table summarizes the experimental lasers diodes, IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 37, n3, pp.
results obtained, to perform a comparison between the two 405-413, March 2001.
different bistable devices. [5] L. Li et al., A Novel Fiber Delay Line Buffering
Architecture for Optical Packet Switching, IEEE
GLOBECOM, pp. 2809-2813, December 2003.
Analysing Table 2, we observe that injecting identical [6] J. Wang et al., All-optical clocked flip-flops exploiting
set and reset signals, with synchronous bistable devices SOA-based ST latches and logic gates, OSC 2009, LNCS
we achieved better extinction ratios and is possible to 5882, pp. 5-18, 2009.
reduced rise and fall times (hundreds of ps). [7] Y. Liu et al.,"Packaged and hybrid integrated all-optical
flip-flop memory", Electron. Lett., vol. 42, No. 24, pp.
1399-1400, November 2006.
[8] N. Pleros et al.,Optical Static RAM CelI, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, Vol. 21, No. 2, January 2009.
[9] C. Reis, All-optical synchronous S-R flip-flop based on
active interferometric devices Electron. Lett., Vol. 46 No.
10, May 2010.

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Experimental Evaluation of All-Optical Asynchronous

and Synchronous Memories

C. Reis(1), A. Maziotis(2), Ch. Kouloumentas(2), C. Stamatiadis(2), M. Bougioukos(2), N. Calabretta(3), P. Andre(1) ,

Fig. 3: Optical synchronous S-R Flip-Flop: MZM: Mach-

The truth table of the clocked S-R flip-flop is the same

Rise Time 1,029 ns 430 ps

Tab.2: Comparison between asynchronous and synchronous

An all-optical flip-flop is a key element for routing

Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the

[1] N. Calabretta et al., All-optical techniques enabling packet

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