| (11) | EP 1 271 812 A3 |
(12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
|
|
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
(54) | Optical signal regenerator |
(57) An object of this invention is to regenerate optical signals in an intact optical state according to a low-speed optical clock. An optical splitter (14) applies a portion of optical pulse signals (10) of X (Gbit/s) to a clock recovery circuit (16) and the rest to an optical splitter (18). The optical splitter (18) applies a half of the input signal to an optical regenerator (20A) and the rest to an optical regenerator (20B). The clock recovery circuit (16) regenerates an electric clock signal of X/2 (GHz) out of the output light from the optical splitter (14) and applies the clock to an optical clock pulse generator (24A and 24B) through phase adjuster (22A and 22B). The generator (24A and 24B) generates an optical clock of X/2 (GHz) whose phase matches with that of the optical signal at the optical regenerator (20A and 20B). The optical regenerator (20A and 20B) regenerates the optical signal from the optical splitter (18) in an intact optical state. An optical delay unit (26), a polarization controller (28A and 28B), and a polarization combiner (30) combine the optical signals from the optical regenerators (20A and 20B) in mutually orthogonal polarization. |