A novel optical integrate and dump receiver for clocking signals

Abstract

A novel integrate and dump receiver for clock signals is presented. The integrate and dump topology is known to be power efficient, but depends on a external clock signal. Here, we introduce a topology that auto generates the dump signal and hence can be used as a clock receiver. The proposed architecture is of special interest for clock channels as it accepts short pulses, instead of a 50 % duty cycle clock, as input signal. This allows big power savings by using pulsed lasers for clock generation in place of continuous wave lasers and optical modulators. The proposed receiver includes inherent duty cycle control and outputs, independent of the input, a 50 % duty cycle clock signal. Finally, the proposed topology is compared to classical approaches and is found to be the most power efficient solution in terms of overall optical link power consumption.