Low chromatic dispersion thin film DWDM filters for 40 Gb/s transmission systems

Process improvements resulting in high film quality and reduced insertion loss have enabled improved performance thin film filters for DWDM applications. Thin film filters with 5 and 6 cavities offer wider passbands and reduced CD within a specified clear channel. Here we have shown that 5 and 6-cavity 100 GHz filters can be made with a clear channel significantly greater than 0.4 nm wide and maximum CD magnitudes in the clear channel below 30 ps/nm to meet the performance requirements of next generation transmission systems operating at 40 Gb/s.