Triquint Technology Holding Co.

Eric J Dean

David Alan Ackerman

Sung-Nee George Chu

Leonard Jan-Peter Ketelsen

John Evan Johnson

Liming Zhang

A process evaluates an aging property of a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser. The process includes illuminating a Bragg grating of the distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) laser with light while the DBR laser is both supplied a tuning current and not lasing. The process also includes performing an action to the DBR laser responsive to a wavelength of a Bragg peak in a portion of the light reflected by the Bragg grating and a value of the tuning current supplied during the illuminating.

Aging in tunable semiconductor lasers

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for compensating for the age induced wavelength drift in a tunable DBR. In practice, the tuning characteristic (i.e. output wavelength versus tuning current) of a tunable DBR may be characterized before and after factory aging, typically in the form of a burn-in or purge cycle. An aging vector may be constructed in accordance with the ratio of the change in the tuning characteristic associated with a second output wavelength and the change in the tuning characteristic associated with a first output wavelength as a function of the factory aging. In addition, the tuning characteristic associated with transmission at the first output wavelength may be monitored in the field. A controller may then update the value of the tuning characteristic associated with the second output wavelength to switch to the second output wavelength in manner that compensates for age induced wavelength drift as a function of the measured in field value of the tuning characteristic associated with transmission at a first output wavelength and said aging vector.

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Allentown, PA, United States of America

Eric J Dean