.160 Gbit / S Optical Time Division Multiplexing

Optical time division multiplexer is a key component in high-speed optical time division multiplexing communication system. The time-delay accuracy and stability of the multiplexer have an important influence on the quality of multiplexed signals. In this paper, firstly a 40Gbit/s optical time-division multiplexer is designed and made by using the fused-tapered optical fiber coupler and the principle and influences to it are analyzed. At the same time, a new method of making an optical time division multiplexer with the combination of selfoc lens is proposed, which is applied to make a 160Gbit/s optical time division multiplexer. The propagation characteristic of light rays in this combinative optical system of selfoc lens is derived and the working principle is also analyzed.It is proved by the experiments that compared with the multiplexer made with fused-tapered coupler and the foreign multiplexer, the multiplexer made with combination of selfoc lens can reduce the effect of polarization and temperature greatly. The polarization controller is not needed by using this new method and the multiplexer is also adaptable to the environment and insensitive to the temperature, which improved the quality of multiplexed signals greatly. So this new method is of practical value to the improvement of high-speed OTDM systems.