SYSTEM FOR CONTROLLING BIAS CURRENT IN LASER DIODES WITH IMPROVED SWITCHING RATES

摘要

The present invention relates generally to laser diodes, and particularly to an operational amplifier able to switch laser diodes on and off quickly without adversely affecting data transmission by the laser diodes. A differential amplifier included in an operational amplifier has a high transconductance when a laser diode is first turned on and a low, near constant transconductance when the laser diode is transmitting data. The operational amplifier is preferably incorporated in optoelectronic transceivers used in passive optical networks. Switching laser diodes on and off quickly enables more efficient use of network bandwidth in such passive optical networks.