An Analysis of Lithium Niobate Modulators for Optical Fiber Networks

The current status of lithium-niobate external-mod- ulator technology is reviewed with emphasis on design, fabrica- tion, system requirements, performance, and reliability. The tech- nology meets the performance and reliability requirements of cur-rent 2.5-, 10-, and 40-Gb/s digital communication systems, as well as CATV analog systems. The current trend in device topology is to- ward higher data rates and increased levels of integration. In par- ticular, multiple high-speed modulation functions, such as 10-Gb/s return-to-zero pulse generation plus data modulation, have been achieved in a single device.