SIMULTANEOUS OTDM DEMULTIPLEXING AND DATA FORMAT CONVERSION USING A D FLIP-FLOP

A D flip-flop is used to simultaneously demultiplex and data format conversion a single 10 Gbits/s channel from a 20 Gbits/s optical time-division multiplexed data stream. Error-free demultiplexing was achieved at very low optical signal power: -14 dBm (20 Gbits/s). The proposed demultiplexer has a simple structure and achieves return-to-zero (RZ) to nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) data format conversion. The demultiplexer allows monolithic integration. The proposed demultiplexer will become an important interface technology in future for connecting the ultra-fast optical time division multiplexing (OTDM) long haul networks to the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) access and metro networks. (C) 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 52: 398-400, 2010; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.2495