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A Study on Automatic Bias Control for Arbitrary Optical Signal Generation by

Dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder Modulator

Article · September 2010

DOI: 10.1109/ECOC.2010.5621244

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ECOC 2010, 19-23 September, 2010, Torino, Italy Tu.3.A.6

A Study on Automatic Bias Control for Arbitrary Optical Signal

Generation by Dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder Modulator
Tsuyoshi Yoshida, Takashi Sugihara, Kenichi Uto, Hiroshi Bessho, Kazushige Sawada,
Kazuyuki Ishida, Katsuhiro Shimizu, and Takashi Mizuochi
Information Technology R&D Center, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation,
5-1-1, Ofuna, Kamakura, 247-8501
Yoshida.Tsuyoshi@ah.MitsubishiElectric.co.jp

Abstract A novel automatic bias control (ABC) is proposed to generate arbitrary signals with a dual-
parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator. We demonstrated the practical generation of arbitrary modulated
signals using the proposed scheme.

Introduction 120 (b)

Histogram
Analogue-like multi-level signals, such as

Average Driving Ratio [%]

orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, 100
(c)

multi-level modulation, and pre-equalization,
have recently been in the spotlight, and arbitrary
optical signal generation is required to produce
these classes of modulation. The dual-parallel
Mach-Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM) has been
used widely for differential quaternary phase-
shift keying (DQPSK) systems, and when
supplied with multi-level electrical drive voltages
it can also generate arbitrary optical signals.
Controlling the bias of the MZM has a critical
effect on the transmission performance. Since a
DP-MZM comprises two child-MZMs and one
parent-MZM, the mutual interactions among
these are complex. Automatic bias control
1, 2
(ABC) is not easy even for DQPSK . ABC for
arbitrary signal generation is much more difficult
still, because of the higher, time-variant peak-to-
average power ratio (PAPR).
The basic requirements for an ABC are as
follows; 1) guaranteed bias convergence, 2)
simple, cost-effective circuitry, 3) minimum
added dither, 4) long-term stability and 5) ability
to handle a variable modulator drive amplitude.
Item 5) is a new requirement for arbitrary
signals and becomes critical when applying the
ABC to a practical optical transmitter. Previous
work showed that arbitrary signals need precise
bias control and suggested a bias control
3
scheme . However, this scheme required
additional optical and electrical devices, which
violated requirement 2). Automatic control and
convergence were also not investigated.
In this paper, we propose a novel ABC for
arbitrary signals without additional optical
devices. Experimental results showed that the
proposed ABC works correctly even for arbitrary
signal generation.
Requirements for ABC
We introduce the requirements for ABC in terms
of the drive amplitude to the modulator, relating
it to the PAPR.
Histogram
80 Voltage
60
Voltage
40
20
(a)
0
4 6 0 2
8 10 12 14 16 18 20
PAPR of Drive Waveform [dB]
Fig. 1: (a) Average driving ratio versus PAPR of drive
waveform. (b) and (c) are examples of histograms.
Fig. 1(a) shows average driving ratio m as a
function of the PAPR of the drive waveform. Fig.
1(b) is a histogram of the drive waveforms for
DQPSK, and Fig. 1(c) is a histogram of an
example of analogue-like modulation with PAPR
= 11 dB. We define an average driving ratio m =
V eff /2V  , where V eff is the effective amplitude of
the drive signal applied to the data modulation
electrode, and V  is the half wavelength voltage
of the modulator (see Fig. 3 below). PAPR in dB
has a simple logarithmic relationship with m,
such that PAPR = -20log 10 (V eff /2V  ).
For a binary modulation format such as
DQPSK, m is always kept at 100%, because the
peak-to-peak amplitude of the drive signal
voltage V pp is usually set to 2V  . However, the
PAPR of an analogue-like arbitrary signal is both
higher and variable. For arbitrary signal
generation, we must therefore develop a novel
ABC which can handle the variable PAPR or m.
ABC for Arbitrary Signal Generation
We propose a DP-MZM with an ABC providing
arbitrary drive signals.
Fig. 2 shows the modulator bias control block.
A DP-MZM has three bias ports; one for the in-
phase channel (I-ch), one for the quadrature-
phase channel (Q-ch), and one for optical phase
adjustment (Phase). The bias voltages, which
are applied to bias electrodes, each consist of a

978-1-4244-8535-2/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

 Tu.3.A.6

DC bias voltage and a variable (dither)
component. The DC bias component is
calculated from the gradient of the monitor
photodetector (PD) current, which is proportional
to the average optical output power P AVG .
Conventional ABC algorithms control just the
three DC biases for the I-ch, Q-ch and Phase.
Our proposed ABC includes further control of
the driver gain based on the PAPR. This is
essential to handle arbitrary waveforms with a
range of PAPRs.
Fig. 3 shows (a) the average optical output
power P AVG and (b) its gradient P AVG as
functions of bias detuning for average driving
ratios m = 100%, 50% and 25%. When the
dither signal is a periodic rectangular waveform,
the error signal e is described as
e  I H   I L   RmACPAVG (1).
I(D) is the monitor PD current for dither condition
D  {L, H}, where L and H are the low and high
levels, respectively. R mAC is the AC response of
the monitor PD. The biases are variously
adjusted to the optimum (null) point, and to the
detuned (peak) points at +/-V  , where e = 0 and
P AVG = 0.
The bias c[k] has to be c[k-1] +
sgn(R mAC )ec for m > 50%, and c[k-1] -
sgn(R mAC )ec for m < 50%, where k is time, c
Modulator I-ch
Optical Optical
Input output
Phase
Q-ch
Driver
Data
Bias Monitor
PD
Controller
Gain
PAPR Info.
Fig. 2: Configuration of modulator bias control block.
(a)
PAVG
is the control step, and c > 0 because the
polarity of the error signal e in Eq. (1) depends
on m as shown in Fig. 3(b).
Changing m switches the polarity of the error
signal at the 50% average driving ratio threshold.
The polarity of the error signal is an essential
parameter for convergence of the ABC, and the
driving ratio needs to be set carefully to ensure
convergence. By keeping m < 50%, we can
apply ABC using the same polarity of the error
signal even for arbitrary signal generation.
Implementation of ABC
We designed the ABC algorithm to provide
arbitrary drive signals for a DP-MZM. The dither
and error signals are re-defined, with the I-ch,
Q-ch and Phase biases having to be held
respectively to null-point, null-point and /2.
Each bias is optimized when the corresponding
error signals for I-ch, Q-ch and Phase defined in
Eqs. (2) – (4) are zero.
eI  I H ,0   I L,0  (2)
eQ  I 0, H   I 0, L  (3)
eP  I H , H   I L, H   I H , L   I L, L  (4)
I(D I , D Q ) are the monitor PD currents, where
the dither values for the I-ch and Q-ch are D I
and D Q , respectively: D I , D Q {0 (no dither), L,
H}. Dithers can be generated easily because
they are rectangular waveforms having long
periods of order 10-100 msec. Both e I and e Q
are simple expansions from Eq. (1), and e P is
obtained by subtraction of the I-ch error signal
when D Q = L from that when D Q = H. When the
Phase bias is optimized at /2, the I-ch and Q-
ch do not interact, the I-ch error signal does not
depend on D Q , and e P = 0.
Errors e I , e Q , and e P show zero-mean
sinusoidal characteristics with bias detuning. We
can establish the control directions from the
polarities of e I , e Q , and e P . The polarities of e I
and e Q also depend on the average driving ratio
m. To apply the ABC to analogue-like arbitrary
signals, we hold m to < 50%. Adjustment of the
average driving ratio can be achieved by

100%
controlling the driver gain.
50%
25%
Experiments
We investigated the practicality of the proposed
ABC experimentally. Fig. 4 shows the
PAVG

(b) 100%
experimental setup. As examples of analogue-
50%
0 like arbitrary signals, we generated 40G DQPSK
signals with pre-equalized chromatic dispersion.
25%
The laser wavelength was set to 1550.4 nm. A
-V 0 +V Bias Detuning DP-MZM is used for generation of the arbitrary
optical electric field. The average driving ratio
Peak-Point Null-Point Peak-Point
was always set to < 50% by adjusting the driver
Fig. 3: (a) Average optical output power and (b) its
gradient as a function of bias detuning. Average gain. The bias voltages were measured using an
driving ratio m = 100%, 50% and 25%.
 Tu.3.A.6

oscilloscope. The transmission line consisted of chose initial BERs around 1E-6 in order to
G.652 single-mode fibre (SSMF). collect enough errors to measure the BER every
The parameters used for experimental minute. The BERs with the ABC were not
analogue signal generation are shown in Tab. 1. degraded and remained stable between 1E-6
We demonstrated the proposed ABC for two and 1E-8. On the other hand, the BERs without
cases; (a) was with -624 ps/nm pre-equalization the ABC became seriously degraded within only
and 40 km transmission, and (b) was with -2275 40 minutes. Although this was an initial study, it
ps/nm pre-equalization and 130 km transmission. is clear that the proposed ABC can be applied to
In the experiment, we controlled the I-ch, Q- arbitrary signal generation.
ch and Phase biases separately. For I-ch or Q-
Conclusions
ch bias control, a dither signal was added to the
We proposed a novel ABC for arbitrary signal
I-ch or the Q-ch bias only. For Phase bias
generation with a DP-MZM. The proposed ABC
control, synchronised dither signals were added
can be realized via a simple and cost-effective
to both the I-ch and Q-ch biases.
configuration because no additional optical and
Fig. 5 shows the dither signal voltages for
electrical devices are required.
the I-ch and Q-ch biases, the monitored PD
We demonstrated the practical generation of
currents (Mon), and the I-ch, Q-ch and Phase
arbitrary 40G signals with the proposed ABC. All
DC bias voltages that resulted in a functional
the bias voltages converged correctly for every
ABC. The experimental conditions are the same
case. We anticipate that the proposed scheme
as in Tab. 1, and the measurements were taken
can be applied to a practical optical transceiver.
during the Phase bias control sequence. We see
from the left-hand panels in Fig. 5 that the I-ch This work was in part supported by Universal Link
and Q-ch dithers were synchronized correctly. Technology Project of the National Institute of
We found that the I-ch error signal needed a DC Information and Communications Technology (NICT),
offset to improve the performance due to as part of a program of the Ministry of Internal Affairs
imperfections in the analogue circuitry. We set and Communications (MIC) of Japan.
the I-ch target value to e I = (0 + offset). The Q-
References
ch and Phase biases did not need offsets. All
1 P. S. Cho et al., PTL, 18, 21, pp. 2209-2211.
the biases were stable over 100 seconds as
2 K. Sekine et al., OFC/NFOEC2007, OTuH5.
shown in the right-hand panels in Fig. 5. Each
3 L. Dou et al., OFC/NFOEC2010, OthT4.
bias settled at almost the same point for every
analogue signal. Dither Signal DC
To verify the principles of the proposed ABC, Case Voltages and Bias
we measured the long-term bit-error ratio (BER) Monitored Currents Voltages
for 12 hours as shown in Fig. 6. An analogue-
I-ch Q-ch
like arbitrary signal was generated for the pre-
equalization condition of Tab. 1 (a). The BER of (a)
Q-ch I-ch
the received signal was measured by using an Phase
Mon
error detector after demodulation via delay
interferometers and balanced detection. We I-ch Q-ch
(b)
Q-ch I-ch
Arbitrary Mon Phase
Waveform Driver DP-MZM
Generator
SSMF

Controller
Fig. 5: Dither signal voltages, monitored PD
Oscilloscope currents, and DC bias voltages for a functional ABC.
Error T
Detector +/4 1E-3
VOA
w/o ABC
T 1E-4
OBPF
Bit-Error Ratio

-/4
w/ ABC
Fig. 4: Experimental setup. 1E-5
1E-6
1E-7
Tab. 1: Experimental conditions
Case (a) (b) 1E-8
Pre-EQ. [ps/nm] -624 -2275 1E-9
Distance [km] 40 130 0 2 4
6 8 10 12
m [%] 24.6 19.5 Time [hour]
Fig. 6: Long-term BER stability.

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