Embedded Parametric Monitoring of Optoelectronic Modules

• US 20090220248A1
• Filed: 05/08/2009
• Published: 09/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 08/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sumitomo Electric Device Innovations, U.S.A., Inc. (Sumitomo Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Emcore Corporation
• Inventors: Hudgins, Clay E.
• Granted Patent: US 8,186,891 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 398/183
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4246 Bidirectionally operating package structures
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 6/4292 the light guide being disconnectable from the opto-electronic element, e.g. mutually self aligning arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 10/075 using an in-service signal H04B10/071 takes precedence

Abstract

An optoelectronic module for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber including a housing having an electrical input for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting and receiving information-containing electrical signals over such input, and a fiber optic connector adapted for coupling with an external optical fiber for transmitting and receiving an optical signal; an electro-optic subassembly coupled to the information containing electrical signal and converting it to and/or from a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signal; and parametric storage means disposed in said housing for storing environmental and/or operational data associated with the module, and an optional method for time-biased lossy compression of such stored data.

Claims

1. In an optical transmitter for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber comprising:

a housing including an electrical input for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting information-containing electrical signals over said input, and a fiber optical connector adapted for coupling with an external optic fiber for transmitting an optical signal;

an electro-optic subassembly disposed in said housing coupled to the information containing electrical signal and converting it to a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signal at a predetermined wavelength;

the method comprising acquiring, at a sequence of time intervals, operational data associated with the transmitter to store said operational data acquired during said sequence of time intervals in a non-volatile memory disposed in said housing;

tracking and storing an elapsed time while the transmitter is operational;

accessing said non-volatile memory to determine the stored operational data; and

at certain events, overriding default behaviors established for tracking and storing the operational data.

2. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising decoupling said optical transmitter from said external electrical cable or information system device prior to accessing said non-volatile memory.

3. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising compressing said operation data prior to it being stored in the non-volatile memory.

4. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising storing the elapsed time and corresponding operational data as ordered pairs.

5. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein acquiring operational data associated with the transmitter includes acquiring a time rate of change of temperature of at least one of the housing and the electro-optic subassembly.

6. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising calculating and storing statistical moments about a mean of the operational data.

7. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising acquiring and storing indications of bit errors on incoming inputs.

8. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein overriding the default behaviors established for tracking and storing the operational data includes resetting the elapsed time to zero.

9. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein overriding the default behaviors established for tracking and storing the operational data includes setting the elapsed time to a non-zero value.

10. A method as defined in claim 1, wherein overriding the default behaviors established for tracking and storing the operational data includes stop tracking the elapsed time while the transmitter is operational and subsequently tracking and storing the elapsed time again.

11. A method as defined in claim 1, further comprising using a combination of lossless data compression and lossy data compression to store said operational data.

12. In an opto-electrical module for converting and coupling information-containing signals with an optical fiber, a method of storing operational information about the opto-electrical module for failure analysis comprising:

tracking an elapsed run time that the module is operational;

storing the elapsed run time;

periodically acquiring a parameter of interest associated with the module while the module is operational and storing the parameter of interest; and

during a predetermined occurrence to the module, accessing the stored elapsed run time and the parameter of interest, and overriding default behavior for the storing of the elapsed run time.

13. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein the predetermined occurrence occurs during maintenance of the module.

14. A method as defined in claim 12, wherein overriding the default behavior for the storing of the elapsed run time during the predetermined occurrence includes stopping the tracking and the storing of the elapsed run time during the predetermined occurrence and subsequently restarting the tracking and the storing of the elapsed run time after the predetermined occurrence has ended.

15. A method as defined in claim 12, further comprising after accessing the stored elapsed run time and the parameter of interest, clearing from memory at least one of the elapsed run time and the parameter of interest.

16. In an opto-electrical module for converting and coupling information-containing signals with an optical fiber, a method of storing operational information about the opto-electrical module for failure analysis comprising:

autonomously tracking an elapsed run time that the module is operational;

autonomously storing the elapsed run time in nonvolatile memory;

autonomously acquiring a parameter of interest associated with the module while the module is operational and storing the parameter of interest;

resuming autonomously tracking of the elapsed run time after power is returned to the module; and

overriding the autonomous tracking and the autonomous storing during at least one of maintenance and diagnostics.

17. In an optical transmitter for converting and coupling an information-containing electrical signal with an optical fiber comprising:

a housing including an electrical input for coupling with an external electrical cable or information system device and for transmitting information-containing electrical signals over said input, and a fiber optical connector adapted for coupling with an external optic fiber for transmitting an optical signal;

an electro-optic subassembly disposed in said housing coupled to the information containing electrical signal and converting it to a modulated optical signal corresponding to the electrical signal at a predetermined wavelength;

the method comprising acquiring, at a sequence of time intervals, operational data associated with the transmitter, and using a lossy data compression to store said operational data acquired during said sequence of time intervals in a non-volatile memory disposed in said housing;

tracking and storing an elapsed time while the transmitter is operational;

accessing said non-volatile memory to determine the stored operational data; and

at certain events, overriding default behaviors established for tracking and storing the elapsed time.

18. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising decoupling said optical transmitter from said external electrical cable or information system device prior to accessing said non-volatile memory.

19. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising compressing said operation data prior to it being stored in the non-volatile memory.

20. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising storing the elapsed time and corresponding operational data as ordered pairs.

21. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein acquiring operational data associated with the transmitter includes acquiring a time rate of change of temperature of at least one of the housing and the electro-optic subassembly.

22. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising calculating and storing statistical moments about a mean of the operational data.

23. A method as defined in claim 17, further comprising acquiring and storing indications of bit errors on incoming inputs.

24. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein overriding the default behaviors established for tracking and storing the elapsed time includes resetting the elapsed time to zero.

25. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein overriding the default behaviors established for tracking and storing the elapsed time includes setting the elapsed time to a non-zero value.

26. A method as defined in claim 17, wherein overriding the default behaviors established for tracking and storing the elapsed time includes stop tracking the elapsed time while the transmitter is operational and subsequently tracking and storing the elapsed time again.