Feature

All-Optical Repeater

C.R. Giles, Tingye Li, T.H. Wood, C.A. Burrus, and D.A.B. Miller

Lightwave communications systems today rely on electronic devices to perform the necessary signal processing. This is nowhere more evident than in the commercial optical repeater in which the only two optical components are a photodetector and an injection laser. With the advent of photonic integrated circuits, future systems could use "all-optical" repeaters to process signals optically. The advantages of this all-optical repeater include simplicity (no need to convert from optical to electrical signals and back again) and potential high speed

Publish Date: 01 December 1988