A Low Cost PON Transceiver using Single TO-CAN Type micro-BOSA

Koichiro Masuko, Teijiro Ori, Takayuki Tanaka, and Minako Inoue R&D Department, SIGMA-LINKS INC. 550-1 Higashiasakawa-mach Hachioji-city Tokyo 193-8550 Japan masuko564@sigma-links.com Hironori Sasaki, Masahiro Uekawa, Yoshinori Maeno, Kyouko Kotani, Daisuke Shimura, Ryou Sekikawa, and Takeshi Takamori Corporate R&D Center, Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. 550-5 Higashiasakawa-mach Hachioji-city Tokyo 193-8550 Japan Abstract A novel low-cost Small-Form-Factor (SFF) optical transceiver using a micro-compact Bi-directional Optical SubAssembly (micro-BOSA) for Passive Optical Network (PON) application is proposed. In this micro-BOSA, optical transmitting and receiving functions are incorporated in a single TO-CAN package. The BOSA is compact and its pin assignment provides fine connection to printed circuit board and fit in transceiver housing. Bi-directional optical transmittion at 1.25Gbit/s with the receiver minimum sensitivity of 28.2dBm is demonstrated for the fabricated transceiver with the proposed micro-BOSA. Introduction This transceiver is designed for Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) networks using a PON system [1]. The FTTH is popularized especially in Japan where the EPON system has been selected because of its cost-effectiveness. In this system multiple subscribers can share a single fiber and an Optical Line Terminal (OLT). On the other hand, every subscriber must install an Optical Network Unit (ONU) in each home. Therefore, the development of low cost ONU is a key for extending FTTH networks. Major portion of the PON ONU cost comes from the optical transceiver, especially a Bidirectional Optical Sub-Assembly (BOSA). In order to meet requirement for cost reduction, we have developed a new transceiver by simplifying optical subassembly drastically. consists of three parts. The left side is a pigtail fiber for optical interface in the figure. Right side is a printed circuit board with driver IC on it, and 2x7 pins for electrical interface. There are two boards, further one for transmitter circuit and nearer one for receiver circuit, in the drawing. Cubic block among them is a BOSA in which optical signal and electrical signal are converted. Functional diagram of the transceiver for PON system is shown in Figure 2.
LD Data in Burst Enable Burst LD Driver

Temp. Compensation

1310nm WDM 1490nm

OPT I/O 1490nm/1550nm/ 1650nm/1310nm

PD

w/ 1550/1650nm cut filter

Data out Signal Detect

Post-Amp Pre-Amp

Figure 2: Functional diagram of transceiver for PON system. The BOSA usually consists of two TO-CAN packages each for laser diode (LD) and photodetector (PD), fiber pigtail, wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) filter and housing to hold them. LD-CAN and PD-CAN are placed at right angles, so connecting pins for an LD and a PD also make a right angle. Distance between these pins is relatively long. It would be good formation for reducing electrical crosstalk between transmitter side and receiver side. On the other hand, due to this complicated structure, there is difficulty to design a transceiver package and a printed circuit board. In some cases two pieces of circuit boards are put in the package as shown in Figure 1. If we try to use integrated transceiver IC with an LD driver and a PD post amplifier in one chip, either electrical wiring pattern becomes too long for high-speed signal transmission. The conventional BOSA requires a lot of components or parts, and manufacturing process is complicated because it requires multiple alignment process. Proposed Transceiver with New BOSA Figure 3 shows outer shape of the proposed transceiver. An SC-type optical connector can be mated to the one end of the transceiver.

Figure 1: Internal structure of SFF transceiver with conventional bi-directional optical module. Transceiver with Conventional Bi-directional Optical Module Figure 1 shows an example of conventional SFF type transceiver with a conventional BOSA. In this drawing outer case is omitted. Internal structure of transceiver mainly

1-4244-0152-6/06/$20.00 2006 IEEE

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Figure 4 shows internal structure of proposed transceiver. This is designed according to SFF MSA standard. Left side is a new micro-BOSA, and right side is a driver circuit and an electrical interface. Figure 5 shows the structure of micro-BOSA chip. The micro-BOSA chip is incorporated inside the TO-CAN. Optical paths of 1310nm output signal and 1490nm input signal are also drawn. Outline of the chip is 2.4mm square. The ball lens is fixed to a cap of TO-CAN package. Figure 6 shows the silicon (Si) microlens fixed in Vgroove on a silicon optical bench (SiOB). The micro-BOSA chip is a BOSA constructed on a SiOB. A Fabry-Perot LD chip, a pin-PD chip, a WDM filter and two Si microlenses are mounted on the SiOB with passive alignment technologies [2, 3, and 4]. By using the bare chips instead of assembling the CAN-packaged LD and PD, the total number of piece parts is greatly reduced as compared to the classical two-TO-CAN type BOSA resulting in low-cost feature of micro-BOSA. Highly automated assembly process also contributes to low cost and to capability for mass production. Si microlens is so-called diffractive lens which can be fabricated in wafer scale based on the conventional Si LSI fabrication technology. Therefore, the characteristics of lenses can be controlled precisely. Two Si microlenses are used, one for the up-stream path from the LD and the other for the down-stream path to the PD. The emitted light (1310nm) from the LD is collimated by the adjacent aspherical Si microlens and goes though the WDM filter. The PD chip is mounted face down. The downstream optical beam of 1490nm is first reflected by the WDM filter, then focused and deflected towards the end-facet mirror on the V-groove and reflected into the PD. There is a ball lens between WDM filter and single-mode fiber (SMF) working as an imaging lens both for up-stream and down-stream.

Figure 5: Structure of micro-BOSA chip and optical signal path.

Figure 6: Si microlens. The proposed micro-BOSA chip is easily expanded to a triplexer application by simply adding another WDM filter, a Si microlens, and an analogue PD chip for video signal on the SiOB. Figure 7 shows a cut model of the proposed BOSA in the transceiver. The total length is 16.4 mm with the diameter of 6.6mm that is small enough to be fit in the conventional SFF transceiver package. Outline of the micro-BOSA looks like TO-coaxial OSA. An SC-type receptacle is attached at the one end and electrical pins for power supply and signal interface are on the other end. The micro-BOSA chip is attached on the ledge of a stem, and electrical pads and pins are connected by gold wire. Then the BOSA chip is hermetically sealed by cap with a ball lens. Finally SC receptacle is aligned and attached by YAG welding. Pin assignment is shown in Figure 8. As is shown, all pins are oriented to the same direction. This structure makes it easy to connect the BOSA to a printed circuit board. Also, pins for transmitting and receiving are assigned in different rows which can sandwich the circuit board between them.

Figure 3: Outer shape of proposed transceiver.

Figure 4: Transceiver without outer case.

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Therefore, circuits for transmitting and receiving might be put on the opposite side of the circuit board for the use of a separate chip set. Ground plane in the middle layer of the board can reduce electrical crosstalk efficiently. In order to reduce cost and to make a circuit simple, transceiver IC chip which includes both LD driver and PD post-amplifier was developed. If we use the conventional BOSA, one of the signal lines must be long. Both signal lines, however, can be short enough for high-speed signal transmission by using this new BOSA. To utilize for Ethernet PON (EPON) ONU, we must consider that other optical signal such as analogue video signal on 1550nm would be delivered. Such signal must be suppressed not to reach a receiver PD and should not be reflected to the optical fiber. A long wavelength cut filter for such signal is put on the angled surface of SC-type receptacle in the BOSA.

effectively decreases the numerical aperture of the LD, even an inexpensive ball lens can result in good coupling efficiency of -3dB into SMF. Although this new micro-BOSA adopts new design, die bonding process and ring projection process of TO-CAN are versatile ones. So it is easy for mass production. High reliability of the products is also secured. Opto-electrical Characteristics of BOSA As a first step to develop a proposed transceiver, a prototype BOSA mentioned above was fabricated. Optical and opto-electrical characteristics at 25C are shown in Table 1. Table 1: Measured characteristics of BOSA.
Parameter Threshold current Slope efficient Optical return loss (1490nm) Optical return loss (1550nm) Optical return loss (1310nm) Optical cut filter loss (1550nm to PD) Optical isolation (1310nm LD to PD) Unit mA mW/A dB dB dB dB dB 8.0 137 >50 42 13 43 (47)

Figure 7: Cut model of proposed BOSA.

Figure 8: Pin assignment (Bottom view). The optical devices used in the micro-BOSA are conventional ones widely used in fiber-optic applications. Therefore, devices are low cost as compared with the BOSA based on planar lightwave circuits [5] which requires specialized optical devices. Since the LD collimator

Threshold current and slope efficiency would be discussed later. Optical return loss and optical cut filter loss are high enough for EPON specification. In this BOSA 1550nm signal is reflected by cut filter on the receptacle. Reflected light would be absorbed into fiber coating. 1550nm signal would not been coupled to fiber core or PD because the filter surface is angled to the optical fiber. 1490nm signal might be reflected on PD surface but it also angled to optical axis so that reflected light would not back to optical fiber. Optical isolation for 1310nm signal to PD is not measurable directly in this BOSA. However, it is estimated to be over 47dB from indirect measurements. Temperature dependence of threshold current and slope efficiency measured with 17 samples are shown in Figure 9 and 10, respectively. Usually threshold current increases and slope efficiency decreases as temperature increases due to intrinsic characteristics of LD chip. But as is shown in Figure 10, temperature dependence is smaller than that of LD chip in this BOSA. The characteristics come from wavelength dependence of Si microlens. Change of coupling efficiency by wavelength for this lens system is shown in Figure 11. Vertical lines in the figure show the example of LD wavelength at each temperature. Wavelength of LD increases and slope efficiency decreases as temperature increases in general. By combining these characteristics we could decrease the temperature dependence of BOSA. That makes it easier to control output power without using monitor PD. The lens system in this BOSA, that is Si lens and ball lens system, has very high coupling efficiency. -3dB can be easily achieved. But we do not need such high coupling efficiency. One reason is a required return loss at 1310nm signal. LD signal coupling efficiency and return loss at 1310nm has

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strong correlation, so we have to reduce coupling efficiency to less than -5dB. We chose the alignment condition of -5 to 6 dB at 75C. Alignment would be processed at room temperature as to be optimized at 75C.

higher. But in this proposed BOSA, we were able to reduce temperature dependence of modulation current because of the wavelength dependence and the higher coupling efficiency of Si lens system. Transceiver Characteristics The transceiver with proposed micro-BOSA was designed and fabricated. Figure 12 shows measurement result of bit error rate (BER) at 25C. Triangle symbols represent BER when 1490nm, 10dB extinction ratio, PRBS of 27-1, 1.25Gbit/s signal was input. Transmitter is disabled. Minimum receiver sensitivity at BER of 10-12 was -29.3dBm. Rhombus symbols represent BER with LD modulation at 1.25Gbit/s, 1.5dBm output power, 10dB extinction ratio and PRBS of 27-1. Minimum receiver sensitivity at BER of 10-12 was -28.2dBm. These characteristics can sufficiently meet the IEEE 802.3ah requirement of -24.0dBm at 6dB extinction ratio.

Figure 9: Temperature dependence of threshold current.

Figure 10: Temperature dependence of slope efficiency.

Figure 12: Receiver BER characteristics.

Figure 11: Wavelength dependence of lens system for the BOSA. Due to temperature characteristics of LD chips, modulation current has to be increased as temperature become Figure 13: Transmitter eye diagram at 1.25Gbit/s.

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Figure 13 shows eye diagram at 1.25Gbit/s. Eye diagram was measured through filter with LD modulation at 1.5dBm output power and extinction ratio of 10dB. It has enough margins to 1.25Gbit/s signal. Figure 14 shows Transmitter burst optical output waveform. Rise time is 40ns with enough margins.

Acknowledgments The authors wish to acknowledge Optical Component Company of Oki Electric Industry Co. Ltd. and Optics and Electronics Laboratory of Fujikura Ltd. for advice and technical support. References 1. IEEE 802.3ah. 2. M. Uekawa et al., "Expanded application of silicon Vgroove platform with silicon microlens," Paper MF62 in Proceedings of Optical Fiber Conferences, 2003. 3. M Uekawa et al., Surface-mountable silicon microlens for low-cost laser modules, IEEE Photonics Tech. Lett., vol. 15, pp. 945-947, 2003. 4. D. Shimura et al., Ultra compact optical subassembly using integrated laser diode and silicon microlens for lowcost optical component, Paper s05P7 in Proc. of Electronic Components and Technology Conference, 2004. 5. H. Blauvelt et al., High performance planar lightwave circuit triplexer with passive optical assembly, Paper OthU7 in Proc. of Optical Fiber Conference, 2005.

Figure 14: Transmitter burst optical output waveform. Optical and Electrical Crosstalk In developing such a compact BOSA, we must take great care of crosstalk between transmitter and receiver. We did preliminary experiments and established effective method to suppress crosstalk. To suppress optical crosstalk, we made a TO-CAN cap with ball lens whose inside surface is finished with low reflection coat. LD emission from rear facet would be absorbed by surface mount monitor PD on SiOB. If the monitor PD has no use for LD driving, putting black resin onto stem absorbs the light efficiently. For electrical crosstalk, pin assignment of this BOSA seems to be not so good, because the pins for transmitter and receiver are aligned in parallel. But, those pins are separated by grand layer in circuit board so that electrical crosstalk can be suppressed efficiently. To suppress electrical crosstalk inside the BOSA, wire bonding route of LD to pin, pre-amplifier to pin and PD to pre-amplifier are designed to make right angle to each other as far as possible. Conclusions A prototype transceiver with a micro-BOSA was designed and fabricated. The micro-BOSA adopts a structure like TOcoaxial OSA in which transmitting function and receiving function are incorporated. At 1.25Gbit/s data rate, minimum receiver sensitivity was -28.2dBm when transmitter was operated at 1.5dBm output power and 10dB extinction ratio. The sensitivity is low enough to be used in the Ethernet PON transceivers. Although LD and PD chips are packaged in a small TO-CAN, both electric and optical interferences are effectively suppressed.

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