A two-way 224-Gbit/s PAM4-based fibre-FSO converged system

A two-way 224-Gbit/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4)-based fibre-free-space optical (FSO) converged system through a 25-km single-mode fibre (SMF) transport with 500-m free-space transmission is successfully constructed, which adopts injection-locked vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers with polarisation-multiplexing mechanism for a demonstration. Compared with one-way transmission, two-way transmission is an attractive architecture for fibre-FSO converged system. Two-way transmission over SMF transport with free-space transmission not only reduces the required number of fibres and the setups of free-space transmission, but also provides the advantage of capacity doubling. Incorporating dual-wavelength four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) modulation with polarisation-multiplexing mechanism, the transmission capacity of fibre-FSO converged system is significantly enhanced to 224 Gbit/s (56 Gbit/s PAM4/wavelength × 2-wavelength × 2-polarisation) for downlink/uplink transmission. Bit error rate and PAM4 eye diagrams (downstream/upstream) perform well over 25-km SMF transport with 500-m free-space transmission. This proposed two-way fibre-FSO converged system is a prominent one not only because of its development in the integration of fibre backbone with optical wireless extension, but also because of its advantage in two-way transmission for affording high downlink/uplink data rate with good transmission performance.

Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound Imaging Using Capacitive Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducers

Capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs) have a nonlinear relationship between the applied voltage and the emitted signal, which is detrimental to conventional contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS) techniques. Instead, a three-pulse amplitude modulation (AM) sequence has been proposed, which is not adversely affectedby the emitted harmonics. In this paper, this is shown theoretically, and the performance of the sequence is verified using a 4.8 MHz linear CMUT array, and a comparable lead zirconate titanate (PZT) array, across 6 V to 60 V applied AC voltage. CEUS images of the contrast agent SonoVue flowing through a 3D printed hydrogel phantom showed an average enhancement in contrast-to-tissue ratio (CTR) between B-mode and CEUS images of 49.9 dB and 37.4 dB for the PZT array and CMUT, respectively. Furthermore, hydrophone recordings of the emitted signals showed that the nonlinear emissions from the CMUT did not significantly degrade the cancellation in the compounded AM signal, leaving an average of 2% of the emitted power between 26 V and 60 V AC. Thus, it is demonstrated that CMUTs are capable of CEUS imaging independent of the applied excitation voltage when using a three-pulse AM sequence.

Design of a low cost and power efficient 200/400 Gbps optical interconnect using DAC-less simplified PAM4 architecture

Incoherent addition of three monochromatic laser sources is used to create four distinctive power levels to match the profile of standard quaternary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4). The proposed PAM4 signal generation results in a lower symbol error rate as compared to standard PAM4 systems. This design improves the signal-to-noise ratio as compared to existing PAM4 schemes and can reduce the cost and power consumption of existing 200 G or higher optical transceivers.

Experimental Study on 25 Gbps C-Band PON over up to 25 km SMF Using a 10G-Class DML + APD IM-DD System

In this paper we present an experimental analysis of several modulation formats (pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-2), quaternary pulse amplitude modulation (PAM-4) and electrical duobinary (EDB)) for passive optical network (PON) applications at 25 Gbps bit rate in a C-band 10G-class directly modulated lasers (DML) and avalanche photodiode (APD) intensity modulation and direct detection (IM-DD) system over a single mode fiber (SMF) of up to 25 km, optimizing DML operations and demonstrating that PAM-2 is a promising choice. We also theoretically and experimentally analyzed the channel frequency response of DML and SMF affected by DML chirp and SMF chromatic dispersion.

Rapid indicators for monitoring the health of Chlamydomonas nivalis biomass during preservation

Microalgae are photosynthetic microorganisms that have increasingly attracted interest in the last decade due to their potential for industrial applications. One crucial aspect for the industrial-scale valorisation of algae biomass concerns the quality control during its preservation before being treated to obtain the end-product. Monitoring biomass quality is essential and can be potentially accomplished with the aid of specific biochemical indicators called biomarkers. In this context, the main aim of this work was to identify potential indicators of microalgae biomass viability that could be used as markers of its quality during storage/preservation for commercial operations. The health status of a suspension of Chlamydomonas nivalis was assessed at 4 ºC and 25 ºC during 10 days of storage. The use of the pulse-amplitude-modulation technique, based on chlorophyll fluorescence, was a valuable indicator of the culture viability. The measurement of DNA and of chlorophyll in the supernatant, indicative of cell lysis, also provided satisfactory results; in the case of the DNA, the limit of detection was 3.9 µg DNA·mL−1. The effect of different concentrations of a well-known and cheap preservative, acetic acid, was also evaluated at 4 ºC. This work identified three suitable biomarkers to be used as rapid indicators of the quality of the microalgal suspension prior to its reception for biorefinery activities.

Investigation of Ber Performances in Chaotic-Secured Optical Fiber Communication Systems using the 4-PAM Modulation Scheme

This paper presents a numerical simulation investigation on the bit error rate in a chaotic-secured fiber channel and a conventional fiber channel when propagating independently. The investigated communication system uses the pulse-amplitude modulation scheme (4-PAM) at the bit rate of 10 Gbps, the fiber length of 100 km, and the operation wavelength of 1550 nm. Our simulation results demonstrate both chaotic and non-chaotic transmission channels can well operate with the bit rate up to 20 Gbps with the BER smaller than 10-5 if dispersion and fiber loss issues are appropriately compensated without needing forwarderror-correction, showing high potential in physically secured optical fiber communication systems.

100 Gbaud On–Off Keying/Pulse Amplitude Modulation Links in C-Band for Short-Reach Optical Interconnects

We experimentally evaluate the high-speed on–off keying (OOK) and four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM4) transmitter’s performance in C-band for short-reach optical interconnects. We demonstrate up to 100 Gbaud OOK and PAM4 transmission over a 400 m standard single-mode fiber with a monolithically integrated externally modulated laser (EML) having 100 GHz 3 dB bandwidth with 2 dB ripple. We evaluate its capabilities to enable 800 GbE client-side links based on eight, and even four, optical lanes for optical interconnect applications. We study the equalizer’s complexity when increasing the baud rate of PAM4 signals. Furthermore, we extend our work with numerical simulations showing the required received optical power (ROP) for a certain bit error rate (BER) for the different combinations of the effective number of bits (ENOB) and extinction ratio (ER) at the transmitter. We also show a possibility to achieve around 1 km dispersion uncompensated transmission with a simple decision feedback equalizer (DFE) for a 100 Gbaud OOK, PAM4, and eight-level PAM (PAM8) link having the received power penalty of around 1 dB.