Optical Communications Devices & Systems

PIN, avalanche and Schottky photodiodes; risetime, noise, amplifier requirements. Semiconductor optical devices: radiative and non-radiative recombination, quaternary semiconductors, heterojunctions, quantum wells, bandwidth minimization, lasers, distributed feedback, vertical cavity structures. Internal and external modulation, electro-optic modulators, Stark effect. Optical fibers: mode structure, attenuation, dispersion, PM fibers, WDM. System architecture, analog/digital communications, terabit datalinks. Solitons.

3 credits. Prerequisite: ECE 342; Prerequisite or corequisite: ECE 335

Course Code: ECE 433

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.