10 Optical Modulator Manufacturers in 2023
This section provides an overview for optical modulators as well as their applications and principles. Also, please take a look at the list of 10 optical modulator manufacturers and their company rankings.
Table of Contents
What Is an Optical Modulator?
An optical modulator is a device that converts an electrical signal into an optical signal for output, also called an E/O converter (or O/E converter for the reverse conversion), and is mainly used as part of an optical transmission device in fiber-optic communications.
In conventional systems, the signal used for transmission is always an electrical signal. To achieve optical communication over optical fiber, electrical signals must generally be used to modulate the light source in some way and output as an optical signal. The device that plays this role is an optical modulator.
Uses of Optical Modulators
This section describes the uses of optical modulators.
Optical modulators play an extremely important role in optical fiber communications, which are now the foundation of information transmission.
Optical fiber communication is an optical communication method that enables high-speed and long-distance transmission by using optical fiber, which has excellent performance in terms of low loss and wide bandwidth, as a communication line. To introduce this method, a device capable of fluidly exchanging electrical and optical signals is required. The optical modulators were developed for this purpose.
Principle of Optical Modulators
This section describes the principle of optical modulators.
There are two types of methods for converting electrical signals into optical signals: "direct modulation method" and "external modulation method." Of these, the external modulation method is the one that uses optical modulators to perform the conversion.
- Direct modulation method
In the direct modulation method, the light source, the semiconductor laser itself, modulates the optical signal. The advantage of this method is that it has a simple structure and can be miniaturized. However, the response speed of the semiconductor laser itself is limited, so it is not suitable for optical fiber communications, which require high-speed performance. - External modulation method
In the external modulation method, the semiconductor laser, which is the light source, continuously outputs light of a fixed wavelength. When this light is input to optical modulators, the amplitude and phase of the light are changed by an external electrical signal. This results in the output of light that is modulated by the electrical signal.
There are also various methods of altering light from a light source by an external force, such as electrical engineering effects, acousto-optical effects, magneto-optical effects, and thermal engineering effects.
List of 10 Optical Modulator Manufacturers
*Including some distributors, etc.
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- Company Size: largest first
- Year Founded: oldest first
- Year Founded: earliest first
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- Japan
- United States of America
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AMS Technologies
Acousto-Optic Modulators
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AIP Publishing LLC.
2D materials-enabled optical modulators
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Optica Publishing Group
Subvolt electro-optical modulator
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RP Photonics AG
Phase Modulators
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Optical Modulator Manufacturer Ranking
*Including some distributors, etc.Number of Employees
- Renesas Electronics Corporation: 20,962
- Anritsu: 4,168
- Agiltron: 42
Newly Established Company
- Renesas Electronics Corporation: 2010 (13 years ago)
- Agiltron: 2001 (22 years ago)
- Thorlabs, Inc: 1989 (34 years ago)
Company with a History
- Anritsu: 1895 (128 years ago)
- Microsemi: 1986 (37 years ago)
- Thorlabs, Inc: 1989 (34 years ago)
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