Pre-amplifiers

Precedes the equalizer

Maximize sensitivity
 by minimising noise
 maintaining suitable
bandwidth

Possible receiver structures

Low impedance front end
High impedance front end
Transimpedance front end
Low impedance pre-
amplifier
h

A
Rb Ra Ca

RL = Rb || Ra

 PD operates into a low-impedance amplifier ( i.e. 50  )

 Bias / load resistance used to match amplifier i/p impedance
 Bandwidth maximized due to lesser RL
 Receiver sensitivity is less due to large thermal noise
 Suitable only for short-distance applications
High impedance pre-
amplifier
h

A
Rb Ra Ca Equ.

RL = Rb || Ra
 PD operates into a high-impedance amplifier
 Bias / load resistance matched to amplifier i/p impedance
 Receiver sensitivity is increased due to lesser thermal noise
 Degraded frequency performance
 Equalization is a must
 Limited dynamic range
Trans-impedance pre-
amplifier
Rf

h _
Vin
+ -G Vout
Ca
Rb Ra

RL = Rb || Ra
 PD operates into a low-noise high-impedance amplifier with (-)ve FB
 Current mode amplifier, high i/p impedance reduced by NFB
 Receiver sensitivity is increased due to lesser thermal noise
 Degraded frequency performance
 Equalization is a must
 Limited dynamic range
 Trans-impedance pre-
amplifier
Rf

h _
Vin
+ -G Vout
Ca
Rb Ra

RL = Rb || Ra

HOL() = -G Vin / Idet = -G { RL || ( 1/ j  CT) } V/A

HCL()  Rf / { 1 + (j RfCT / G) } V/A

B  G / (2RfCT )
Pre-amplifiers Example
• A high i/p impedance amplifier which is employed in an optical fiber
receiver has an effective input resistance of 4 M which is matched to
a detector bias resistor of the same value. Determine:
• The maximum bandwidth that may be obtained without
equalization if the total capacitance CT is 6 pF.
• The mean square thermal noise current per unit bandwidth
generated by this high input impedance amplifier configuration
when it is operating at a temperature of 300 K.
• Compare the values calculated with those obtained when the high
input impedance amplifier is replaced by a transimpedance
amplifier with a 100 K feedback resistor and an open loop gain of
400. It may be assumed that Rf << RT, and that the total capacitance
remains 6 pF.
Advantages of Transimpedance Amplifier

(overcomes the drawbacks of the high-impedance(HZ) front end by utilizing

a low-noise, high-input-impedance amplifier with negative feedback)

1. It has a wide dynamic range (BW) compared to HZ amplifier

2. Usually little or no equalization is required ( Rf & Cd small and hence
detector time constant is small )
3. Output resistance is small and hence amplifier is less susceptible to
pick up noise , cross talk and EMI etc

4. The transfer characteristics - transimpedance amplifier -Rf - easily

controlled and stable
5. Although Transimpedance amplifier is less sensitive than HZ amplifier,
the difference is about 3 dB.
 COHERENT DETECTION

• Light wave transmission scheme in which the light intensity of the optical
source is modulated linearly with respect to the input electrical signal
voltage.
• This scheme pays no attention to the frequency or phase of the optical
carrier, since a photodetector at the receiving end only responds to
changes in the power level (intensity) that falls directly on it.
• The photodetector then transforms the optical power level variations back
to the original electrical signal format. This method is known as intensity
modulation with direct detection.
• IM/DD systems – offer system simplicity and relatively low cost but suffer
from limited sensitivity and do not take full advantage of tremendous
bandwidth capabilities of optical fiber.
• Optical communication systems that use homodyne or heterodyne
detection are called coherent optical communication systems, since their
implementation depends on phase coherence of the optical carrier.
 COHERENT DETECTION
• In coherent detection techniques the light is treated as a carrier medium
that can be amplitude-, frequency-, or phase-modulated similar to the
methods used in microwave radio systems

Advantages of Coherent Detection

• Nearly ideal receiver sensitivity(20dB improvement than Direct Detection
• High degree of frequency selectivity – due to narrowband Electronic Filters
The key principle of the
• coherent detection technique is to provide gain to the incoming optical
signal by combining or mixing
• it with a locally generated continuous-wave (CW) optical field.
COHERENT DETECTION
 Phase difference between

received & local osc.signal

Polarization misalignment factor
ɸ (t) is the time varying phase difference between the two signals
PLO >> Ps ; ωs – ωLO = ωIF Intermediate Frequency
ɸ (t) is the time varying phase difference between the two signals
IF is in the range of RF-- few tens or 100s of MHz
Homodyne Detection
ωs = ωLO and ωIF=0 .

P S << P LO ; third term increases as P LO is increased ; LO acts as an

amplifier. Hence this detection increases Sensitivity of Receiver & also no
need for any Demodulation as Baseband signal is obtained directly. But most
difficult to design – to maintain the frequency of LO and need for optical PLL
ɸ (t) is the time varying phase difference between the two signals
PLO >> Ps ; ωs – ωLO = ωIF
ɸ (t) is the time varying phase difference between the two signals
IF is in the range of RF-- few tens or 100s of MHz
Heterodyne Detection
Heterodyne Detection
Schemes
Summary
 Point-To-Point Links
The simplest transmission link is a point-to-point line that has a transmitter on
one end and a receiver on the other, as is shown in figure

The following key system requirements are needed in analyzing a link:

– The desired (or possible) transmission distance
– The data rate or channel bandwidth
– The bit error rate (BER)
 Point-To-Point Links
To fulfill these requirements the designer has a choice of the
following components and their associated characteristics:
– Multimode or single-mode optical fibre
• Core size
• Core refractive-index profile
• Bandwidth or dispersion
• Attenuation
• Numerical aperture or mode-field diameter

– LED or laser diode optical source

• Emission wavelength
• Spectral line width
• Output power
• Effective radiating area
• Emission pattern
• Number of emitting modes
 Point-To-Point Links

Pin or avalanche photodiode

• Responsivity
• Operating wavelength
• Speed
• Sensitivity
Two analysis are usually carried out to ensure that the desired
system performance can be met:
– Link power budget
– System rise time budget
System Considerations
System considerations
•In carrying out a link power budget, we first decide at which wavelength to
transmit and then choose components that operate in this region.

Short distance - 800-900 nm region

Long distance - 1300-1550 nm

•The three major optical link building blocks are the receiver, transmitter, and
optical fibre.
•In choosing a particular photodetector, we mainly need to determine the
minimum optical power that must fall on the photodetector to satisfy the bit-
error-rate (BER) requirement at the specified data rate.

 Design cost and complexity constraint are also taken into account
 A PIN photodiode receiver is simpler, more stable with changes in
temperature and less expensive than APD receiver.
 Bias Voltage < 5v
 APD – Bias voltage range from 40V to several hundred voltage
 APD – increased sensitivity –very low optical power levels are to be detected
Optical Source
• The system parameters involved in deciding between the use of an LED and
a laser diode are
Signal dispersion
Data rate
Transmission distance
Cost
• Spectral width of the laser output is much narrower than that of an LED.

Wavelength Source Data rate Distance

Product
800-900nm Spectral width and dispersion
characteristics of silica fibers limit -LED 150Mbps km
Laser 2500 Mbps km
1300nm Signal dispersion is very low, LED 1500Mbps km
•

1550 nm InGaAsP laser 25 Gbps km

SMF 500 Gbps km
• Laser diodes couple 10 to 15dB more optical power into a fiber
than an LED.
• Greater repeater less transmission distance possible with laser
• Low dispersion capability
• Offset by cost constraints
• Expensive, transmitter circuitry more complex
• Lasing threshold varies with temperature and device ageing.
 Optical Fibre
• SMF, MMF - choice depends
• on the type of light source used
• on the amount of dispersion that can be tolerated.
LED –MMF
Edge Emitting LED –SMF
Laser Diode –SMF

•Optical power coupled to a fibre depends on

• Core cladding index difference 
• Numerical aperture

•If core cladding index difference is high, power coupled to the

fiber increases, which in turn increases dispersion
When considering the attenuation characteristic of as cabled
fibre, the excess loss to be considered along with fibre loss.

Excess Loss
• connector loss
• splice losses
• environmental-induced losses that could arise from
temperature variations, radiation effects, and dust and
moisture on the connectors.
Link Power Budget
Link Power Budget
 Link Power Budget

For each of the loss element

PT = PS – PR = 2lc+αf L+ system
margin

Optical Power Loss Model for a point-to-point link

Example – Optical Power Budgeting – IM/DD Analog System

The system is viable, providing a small excess

power margin.
 (b) In order to calculate any possible increase in link length when using
the injection laser source , using the required Equation

Pi − Po = (αfc + αj)L + αcr + Ma dB

Therefore:

0dBm −(−25dBm) = (3.5 + 0.7)L + 1.6 + 7.0 and

4.2L = 25 − 8.6 = 16.4 dB , giving

Hence the use of the injection laser gives a possible increase in the link length of 1.9
km or almost a factor of 2. It must be noted that in this case the excess power margin
has been reduced to zero.
RISE TIME BUDGET
 Rise Time Budget

Basic elements– significantly limit the system speed

Transmitter rise time ttx ; Material dispersion rise time t mat ;
Receiver rise time trx ; Modal dispersion rise time tmod
For NRZ data, tsys should not exceed 70% of the bit period
For RZ data tsys < 35% of Tb

Brx - 3 dB electrical bandwidth of the receiver

Bo - bandwidth of 1km length of cable
BM - bandwidth of cable of length L km
An example of a rise-time budget for a multimode link;
The LED together with its drive circuit has a rise time of 15 ns with a typical
spectral width of 40 nm. The material-dispersion-related rise-time
degradation of 21 ns over the 6-km link. Assume the receiver has a 25-MHz
bandwidth. Hence the contribution to the rise-time degradation from the
receiver is 14 ns. The fiber has a 400-MHz · km bandwidth-distance product
and with q = 0.7. The modal-dispersion-induced fiber rise time is 3.9 ns.
Substituting all these values ,results in a link rise time of

This value falls below the maximum allowable 35-ns rise-time

degradation for our 20-Mb/s NRZ data stream (0.70/bit rate). The
choice of components was thus adequate to meet our system design
criteria.