Proposal and verification of auto calibration technique for bias control circuit connecting to built in optical power monitor in imperfect IQ modulator

Abstract

We show that imperfection in an IQ-modulator degrades the accuracy of the auto bias control (ABC) circuit connected to the modulator's complementary port. Theoretical analyses show that the IQ -modulator constructed by a nested Mach-Zehnder modulator with a low extinction ratio can distort a constellation of modulated light observed at the complementary port. We propose an auto calibration technique for the ABC circuit that can effectively suppress this degradation. Experimental results using 32-Gbaud, 16-QAM signals showed the measured Q-factor improved by 0.5 dB with our proposed technique.