Effect of Various parameters in working of all optical

Binary Delta Sigma Modulator

​1. Introduction
Delta sigma modulator is a crucial component of analog to digital converter
which is used to process high speed signals. Anti-aliasing, high resolution and
low power consumption can be achieved in low cost and without using high
precision analog components. But as data speed increases, it becomes
increasingly difficult to use electronic circuits to sample signals at such high
frequency. Key challenge is to improve quantization accuracy and speed of
analog to digital conversion, which is possible in all-optical implementation.
All optical devices can achieve more than 10 times the speed of computation
than currently possible with electronics based devices. Micro-ring lasers have
become interesting topic for researchers. Various all-optical devices such as
Schmitt trigger, flip flops, and filters [1-7] have been developed in recent times.
Presently all optical signal processing is not fully developed due to the cost and
system complexity. Most of the optical signal processing techniques either
depend on optoelectronic circuits [8] or photonic crystal filtering [9]. In former,
optical signal needs to be converted into electrical signal first because the
signal processing is done in electrical domain making it complex. In latter, the
long fabrication steps results in higher costs.
One of the first attempts to realize optical delta sigma modulator is done by
Barry Shoop [6]. Research on all optical Delta sigma modulator has already
been done by many other research groups[7][10][11]. ​All of them have
proposed some design but none of them has done parameter analysis, which is
important for design optimization. In this paper we designed all optical delta
modulator in similar lines to the method proposed by A. Syed et al[7]. All the
parameters which can be varied externally by designers are analyzed and their
effects on specifications like switching speed, sampling rate, conditions of
failure of Binary Delta Sigma Modulator (BDSM) are analysed and discussed.
2. Design of Binary Delta Sigma Modulator
Conventional Delta Sigma modulator comprises of an integrator connected to
quantizer. Output of conventional DSM is fed back to input as negative feedback.

In the design of Binary Delta sigma modulator(BDSM) the integrator is replaced by

inverted integrator and quantizer by Schmitt trigger, therefore negative feedback
shown in above figure is replaced with positive.
Inverted integrator and Schmitt trigger are implemented using ring lasers. Ring laser
used for making BDSM uses the technique of injection locking and ring laser
deployed is inspired from R Lang’s work on semiconductor ring laser[13].
Figure below shows schematic diagram of BDSM using ring lasers:

The electric fields (E) inside ring lasers has been normalized with photon numbers S
as S = |E|​2​.​ ​Appropriate ratio is maintained between currents of all ring lasers A, B
and C. Ring lasers are appropriately coupled with each other with certain coupling
factor.
In binary delta sigma modulator ring lasers A and B form Schmitt trigger (A as
master and B as slave) while C acts as inverted integrator. Ring laser C which acts
as inverted integrator is given the input to be modulated. Output of this integrator is
given to Schmitt trigger. Final output comes out from ring laser B which is fed back to
ring laser C. Rate equations are taken from [7].
Study of injection locking and its properties has been done [13,14] and rate equation
for ring lasers have been analyzed [12, 15]. Theoretical study and analysis of
parameters has been done[16].

3.Working of Binary Delta Sigma Modulator

The working of BDSM is as follows. When input to ring laser C is initially zero output
is high which is given to ring laser A. High input suppresses output of A to low which
results in B giving high output. Thus for input value zero output of BDSM is high. This
high input goes back to integrator (Laser C) eventually making output of C low. This
low input is given to A which starts lasing and therefore suppressing lasing in B
making net output of DSM low. Again this cycle continues to give oscillations.
Frequency of this oscillation depends on delay inside lasers and other factors which
we will discuss later. ​Following is the Simulation result of BDSM with zero input:

Following is the simulation result for sinusoidal input of frequency 20 MHz:

For modulated signal of sinusoidal input it is observed that frequency of modulated
signal is increased when input value is between maximum and minimum and
decreased as input value reaches its peak. This can be observed in above figure.

4. Factors affecting working of Binary Delta Sigma

Modulator

In this section effects of controllable parameters such as injection current, frequency

of input, diameter of ring laser and amplitude of input on various specifications of
BDSM are discussed
4.1 Effect of Injection Current
Simulations for different values of injection current is done. Initial current for
simulation were ​Ia = 5*I, Ib = 0.9*I and Ic = 4.8*I​ where​ I = 10mA ​as depicted in
figure 4.2​.
It is observed from figure 4.1 that on ​increasing I, amplitude of modulated pulses
increases and pulse width slightly decreases​. Amplitude changes for I​ ​= 10mA
and I = 12mA are shown in figure 4.1a and 4.1b below

4.1a) I = 10mA 4.1b) I = 12mA

Fig 4.1
For values of ​I​ smaller than 9.5mA and greater than 12mA, modulation of input
signal ​fails ​for I>12mA​ ​as shown in Fig 4.3 and Fig 4.4 ​. ​It is also observed from
simulations that​ on decreasing injection current switching time of all optical
DSM decreased ​and sampling rate of DSM increases. Sampling rate at I = 10mA is
225 MHz as compared to 181MHz at I = 12mA.

Fig 4.2 Modulation at I = 10mA

Fig 4.3 Modulation failing for I>12mA

​Fig​ ​4.4​ Failed demodulation for current values greater than 12mA.

For Ring laser A​ modulation works for current 50mA <Ia< 60mA
For Ring laser B​ modulation works for current 8.5mA <Ib< 10mA
For Ring laser C​ modulation works for current 23mA <Ic< 50mA

4.2 Effect of frequency of external input

BDSM was simulated for different values of input frequencies. As the ​Frequency is
increased, ​the number of ​modulated pulses per cycle decreases​. Pulse width and
Pulse amplitude remained same. For input signal frequencies more than 125 MHz,
modulation failed as​ sampling rate of BDSM is 250 MHz ​as depicted in figure 4.6
and 4.7​.

Fig 4.5 Modulation for frequency less than 120 MHz

Fig 4.6 Modulation result for frequency more than 120 MHz
 Fig 4.7 Failed demodulation of signal with frequency above 125 MHz.

4.3 Effect of Size of ring laser

Fig4.8 Modulation result for Diameter,D = 0.006m

It can be observed in fig 4.9 that on increasing diameter, D of ring lasers pulses per
cycle decreased and ​amplitude of pulses increased​.

Fig 4.9a) D = 0.006m Fig 4.9b) D = 0.008m

 Fig 4.9 c) D = 0.0127m
Fig 4.9​Amplitude of modulated signal increases with increase in diameter of ring
laser

Also on increasing the diameter of ring laser it is observed from simulations

that ​switching time of DSM increases and therefore sampling rate reduces​.
Sampling rate for D = 0.006m is ​250MHz ​as compared to ​90 MHz​ for D = 0.0127m.
Therefore input signal with higher sampling rate can be modulated more effectively if
ring lasers used in making all optical DSM are smaller in diameter. Modulation fails
for ring lasers with diameter less than 0.006m and more than 0.0127m. Failed
modulation results of ring laser diameter larger than 0.0127m are shown in figure
4.10 and 4.11.

Fig 4.10: Modulation fails for diameter value above 0.0127m

 Fig 4.11 ​Failed demodulation of signal for ring laser diameter above 0.0127m

4.4 Effect of amplitude of external input

Changing amplitude of input signal also affects working of binary delta sigma
modulator. Simulation of BDSM at amplitude 150 is depicted in figure 4.12.
Modulation of all BDSM stops when amplitude of input signal is more than 240 as
shown in figure 4.13 and 4.14. ​Switching speed of DSM increases and sampling
rate decreases as we increase amplitude of input signal​. ​Sampling rate ​goes
down from 225 MHz at amplitude of 150 to 40 MHz at input amplitude of 240.

Fig 4.12 Modulation at input amplitude 150

 Fig 4.13 Modulation result for amplitude value greater than 250

Fig 4.14 ​Demodulated signal from low pass filter for amplitude above 250

5. Conclusion
Effects of various parameters on the working of DSM is analysed. The parameters
which can be readily varied externally are only considered. Such an analysis is
essential for optimization of parameters and getting the desired output.​Change in
switching speed, sampling rate and failure conditions for different parameters is
analyzed. It is concluded that input sampling rate of modulator can be improved by
optimizing parameters like injection current, size of laser, amplitude of input signal.
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