CHARACTERIZATION AND OPTIMIZATION OF ERBIUM- DOPED FIBER AMPLIFIERS USED IN OPTICAL COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS

Abstract

This paper deals with the properties of Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs). The EDFA is an optical amplifier that is used in the 1550 nm window of optical fibers. The objective of this work is to analyze and optimize the performance of EDFA systems with single wavelengths input sources. The Performance of optical communication systems is enhanced by the use of EDF. EDFA is an important element in Coarse Wavelength-Division Multiplexing (CWDM) and Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) networks. The study can achieve gain spectrum by modeling the dynamic characteristics of an EDFA, and presents basic EDFA model operating on single (1550 nm) wavelength operation with their simulation results, then numerical simulations are used to evaluate the amplifier performance as function of manufacturing parameters and operating conditions, using this numerical model a computer program is developed to calculate the amplifiers gain and noise figure under certain conditions. The focus in this work is to study deeply EDFAs and then to improve the design for best performance (maximizing gain and reducing noise figure).