An optical transmitter has an optical modulator with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, a pilot signal generator configured to generate a pilot signal to be superimposed on a drive signal for driving the optical modulator or on a substrate bias voltage applied to the optical modulator, and a controller configured to detect a ratio between a pilot component and a direct current component contained in a light output from the optical modulator and control at least one of an amplitude of the drive signal and a level of the substrate bias voltage such that the ratio becomes a constant value.

Embodiments of this disclosure provide a bias control apparatus and method of a modulator of an optical transmitter and an optical transmitter. By obtaining respective output power signals of a first Mach-Zehnder modulator and a second Mach-Zehnder modulator constituting the modulator of the optical transmitter, information on a phase bias may be extracted according to the two output power signals and an overall output power signal of the modulator of the optical transmitter, so as to control the phase bias by using the information, thereby efficiently improving a sensitivity of the control of the bias, and being applicable to various types of modulation formats.

The present invention relates to telecommunication techniques and integrated circuit (IC) devices. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention provide an off-quadrature modulation system. Once an off-quadrature modulation position is determined, a ratio between DC power transfer amplitude and dither tone amplitude for a modulator is as a control loop target to stabilize off-quadrature modulation. DC power transfer amplitude is obtained by measuring and sampling the output of an optical modulator. Dither tone amplitude is obtained by measuring and sampling the modulator output and performing calculation using the optical modulator output values and corresponding dither tone values. There are other embodiments as well.

An optical transmitter includes an optical modulator configured to modulate light from a light source; and a processor configured to generate a drive signal that is input into the optical modulator. The processor inserts a bias control signal amplitude-modulated at a low frequency, into an analog signal at fixed intervals, to generate the drive signal.

An apparatus comprises: a first input tap; a first optical modulator coupled to the first input tap; a first output tap coupled to the first optical modulator so that the first optical modulator is positioned between the first input tap and the first output tap; and a controller indirectly coupled to the first input tap and the first output tap.

A bias control apparatus and method of a modulator of an optical transmitter and an optical transmitter, in which by performing mutual interference on driving signals of two Mach-Zehnder modulators constituting the modulator of the optical transmitter, output optical fields of the two Mach-Zehnder modulators are correlated. Hence, an output power signal of the modulator of the optical transmitter contains information on phase bias. Thus, the phase bias may be controlled by using the output power signal, sensitivity of the bias control may be efficiently improved, and various types of modulation formats may be applied.

A light modulation device detects a power of the modulated optical signal modulated by each of an I-component optical modulator and a Q-component optical modulator, synchronously-detects a component of a frequency fd from the power of the modulated optical signal, outputs a dither signal of a frequency fd/n (where n is a positive integer equal to or larger than 1) applied to a first bias voltage or a second bias voltage when adjusting the first bias voltage or the second bias voltage, outputs two dither signals having a frequency fd/m (where m is a positive integer equal to or larger than 1, where n<m), which are mutually orthogonal to each other, applied to the first and second bias voltages when adjusting a third bias voltage, and adjusting bias voltages by increasing or decreasing bias voltages based on a synchronous detection result.

Systems and methods are disclosed to provide automatic bias control for intensity modulated silicon modulator by providing a laser light to a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and splitting the laser light into a first arm and a second arm, wherein light in the first arm experiences a phase section for data modulation and light in the second arm receives heat for bias control and a phase section for data modulation; providing a first output light of the MZM; providing a complementary output light a monitor photodetector (mPD); and applying an uneven spacing 3-level square wave as dither for automatic bias control of MZM which operates at quad point and phase tuning with a heater.

An exemplary optical measurement system described herein includes a control circuit configured to output a global bias voltage and a module communicatively coupled to the control circuit. The module includes a light source configured to emit light directed at a target. The module further includes a plurality of detectors configured to detect arrival times for photons of the light after the light is scattered by the target. The module further includes a module control circuit configured to receive the global bias voltage and output a plurality of detector bias voltages based on the global bias voltage. The plurality of detector bias voltages include a respective detector bias voltage for each detector of the plurality of detectors.

Systems and methods described herein include methods and systems for controlling bias voltage provided to an optical modulating device. The optical modulating device is biased at a bias point that is different from a null point of the device such that an offset to the received optical power due to limited extinction ratio is reduced.