Continuous tuning for optical dispersion compensation synthesizers using cascaded etalons

摘要

Described is a method for designing individual stages of a multiple cascaded etalon TDC device to allow continuous thermo-optic tuning over a desired range without signal impairment. This allows the signal to transmit without encountering dark spots, or even significant reduction in quality during tuning. The method includes characterizing each etalon stage, after full assembly, for spectral group delay profile as a function of temperature. This accounts for performance variations that are due to allowed manufacturing tolerances.