WaveShaper
™
Family of Programmable Optical Processors
Programmable Optical Filtering and Wavelength Switching
WAVESHAPER
The WaveShaper family of Programmable Optical Processors provides a range of programmable optical filtering
and switching options for optical R&D and production test applications. Based on Finisar’s high-resolution,
solid-state Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) optical engine, the WaveShaper family provides extremely fine
control of filter characteristics, including center wavelength, bandwidth, shape, dispersion and attenuation. The
WaveShaper family is used in a wide variety of applications, including optical communications, pulsed lasers in
the medical and material processing area as well as optical sensors.
APPLICATIONS
Mux/DeMux and De-/Interleaving
The WaveShaper 4000S can serve as a pro-
grammable Multiplexer/Demultiplexer or
Interleaver/De-Interleaver. It can incorporate
basically any channel spacing, including non-
equally spaced channels. It fully supports
Flexgrid™, the new approach to flexible Grid
network architectures. As it can operate in
both directions, it can be used as a wave-
length splitter as well as a combiner.
Mux/DeMux
De-/Interleaving
Filtering with arbitrary
spectral shapes
Normalised Transfer Fundtion (dB)
Loss (dB)
Filtering with variable bandwidth and with
arbitrary spectral shapes is of importance in
system test experiments. For example, the
influence of cascading of optical filters on the
transmission quality can be investigated by
programming the resulting filter shape into
the WaveShaper.
0
-5
0
-10
-10
100GHz
90 GHz
80 GHz
70 GHz
60 GHz
50 GHz
40 GHz
30 GHz
20 GHz
10 GHz
-15
-20
-20
-60
-30
-40
-20
-60
20
40
60
-40
Optical Comb Generation
Generation of optical combs is key in a variety
of module and system test applications. For
example, loading an amplifier with a rep-
resentative power spectrum is required for
proper amplifier test. Similar requirements
exist for testing optical systems involving
amplified links. The WaveShaper can create
individual spectral lines – even with shapes as
if they were modulated.
Frequency Offset (GHz)
-50
-60
-0.1
-0.08
-0.06
-0.04
-0.02
-70
0
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.1
Frequency Offset (GHz)
Page 2
Dispersion Compensation
In system test, verification of dispersion bud-
gets and verification of sensitivity of transmis-
sion systems to group delay ripple (and other
dispersion imperfections) is of importance.
Several members of the WaveShaper family
allow setting dispersion values of up to 100
ps/nm (per 50 GHz channel) as well as cre-
ating group delay ripple with high spectral
frequency.
1
Laser Pulse Compression,
Shaping and Generation
Pulsed Lasers are utilized in a large number
of medical, material processing, communi-
cations and other applications. Several of
these applications require very short optical
pulses, for example when athermal ablation
is required. The WaveShaper 1000/SP allows
dynamic compression of optical pulses and
therefore enables stable operation of such
laser pulses in the femtosecond regime.
Certain other applications, in particular in the
communications area, require specific pulse
shapes (like rectangular for example) or par-
ticular bit sequences.
Power (normalised)
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (ps)
Rectangular pulse
1
Intensity (normalised)
0.5
0
1
0.5
0
1
0.5
0
-10
-5
0
5
10
Time (ps)
Creation of pulse patterns: pulse sequences of
1010, 0111, 1111 have been created from a single input pulse
Gain Equalization
In Communication system test beds a num-
ber of parameters needs to be verified. This
includes the tolerance of the transmission
system to spectral shapes of the gain. The
WaveShaper allows creating such gain shapes
with very high resolution (down to 0.01 dB
attenuation steps) and therefore allows
creation and also compensation of such
gain shapes.
10
7.5
WaveShaper 120 Gain Equaliser
Gain Flattening Performance
Measured Power (dB)
5
2.5
0
191.25
-2.5
-5
-7.5
-10
ASE
Filter Profile
Flattened Trace
191.75
192.25
192.75
193.25
193.75
194.25
194.75
195.25
195.75
Frequency (THz)
Page 3
WAVESHAPER
APPLICATIONS
Fourier Processing
Fourier processing is a new capability of the
WaveShaper 4000 that allows the user to
split an input signal between multiple output
ports. Simple structures like wavelength-
dependent couplers and splitters (Figure 1)
can be created with user defined coupling
ratios and frequency dependencies. In addi-
tion to just splitting the power, the phase of
the signals in the different ports can also be
adjusted. This allows the user to create, on
the fly, more complex structures like Delay
Line Interferometers (e.g. DPSK-Demodulator
– shown in Figure 2) or DQPSK-Demodulators
with a variable, easily-programmable, optical
transfer function (Figure 3).
More complex functions, such as the all-
optical Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) filter
shown in Figure 4 can also be easily created.
The Fourier Processing algorithms have been
developed with the support of leading edge
research groups (see e.g. References 3 and
4 on page 10). The capabilities of Fourier
Processing on the WaveShaper 4000 can be
best described as “just like an Optical FPGA”,
where an optical functional element (com-
ponent) can be created within a fraction
of a second just by uploading a definition
table. The ability to easily generate complex
interferometric structures simplifies many
areas of research which require an arbitrary
optical transfer function, including the abil-
ity to share (or combine) power between
multiple ports. Fourier Processing is built
into the WaveManager Application Suite
and supported on all new WaveShaper 4000
Programmable Optical Processors. Upgrades
are available for existing units.
194.8
0
Transmitted Power (dB)
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
Figure 3: Optical transfer function of a DQPSK demodulator generated
in a WaveShaper 4000S using the Fourier Processor Software
Figure 1: Splitter
Figure 2: Delay Line Interferometer
194.9
195
195.1
Frequency (THz)
Port 1
Port 2
Port 3
Port 4
Figure 4: Optical transfer function of an all-optical DFT filter with 15 GHz FSR
Page 4
PRODUCTS
WaveShaper 100S
Tunable Optical Filter
Fully programmable, DWDM tunable optical filter with user-selectable band-pass (Flat-
top) and Gaussian filter shapes. The filter bandwidth is programmable in 1 GHz incre-
ments from 10 GHz up to 1000 GHz, with the center frequency programmable in 1 GHz
increments over the whole C- band. Ideal for production test applications.
0
-10
Gaussian
-20
Band Pass
-30
-40
-50
-60
-250
-200
-150
-100
-50
0
50
Frequency Offset (GHz)
100
150
200
250
WaveShaper 120S
Gain Equaliser
Programmable equaliser which allows arbitrary attenuation shapes with 0.01 dB reso-
lution in the range of 0 - 10 dB over the whole C- band. Optimised for gain-flattening
of high-performance EDFAs. Gridless operation for next-generation transmission
system development.
10
7.5
WaveShaper 120 Gain Equaliser
Gain Flattening Performance
Measured Power (dB)
5
2.5
0
191.25
-2.5
-5
-7.5
-10
ASE
Filter Profile
Flattened Trace
191.75
192.25
192.75
193.25
193.75
194.25
194.75
195.25
195.75
Frequency (THz)
Page 5
京公网安备 11010802033920号
EEWORLD
