All-optical 3R regeneration based on the XPM effect of semiconductor optical amplifier

We propose a 40 Gb/s all optical 3R regeneration system. A high Finesse Fabry‐Perot (F‐P) filter (FSR = 40 GHz, finesse = 1012) and a gain‐saturated SOA are used to extract 40 GHz clock. Before the clock extraction, 40 Gb/s RZ optical signals are converted into a stable wavelength after noninverted wavelength conversion based on the XPM of a single SOA. In the all optical decision, dual SOAs in series were used to lengthen active region of SOA. The 40 Gb/s degraded RZ signals are regenerated based on the XPM of dual SOAs in series, when a 0.26‐nm OBPF is blue shifted with respect to the wavelength of extracted clock. The experimental results show better eye opening, the decreased timing jitter from 5 to 1.4 ps and the 15 dB improved optical signal to noise ratio (OSNR). © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 50: 1807–1810, 2008; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.23473