Patent ID: 6950450

Claim:
An apparatus for providing a control signal to a tunable laser, comprising: a logic circuit adapted to store a table of calibration parameters corresponding to the tunable laser, wherein, in response to a first input signal and based on the table of calibration parameters, the apparatus generates the control signal for controlling output wavelength of the tunable laser; and an amplifier block coupled between the logic circuit and the tunable laser, wherein the amplifier block receives a signal from the logic circuit and generates the control signal applied to the tunable laser, wherein the amplifier block includes: (i) a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) receiving the signal from the logic circuit; and (ii) an amplifier coupled to the output of the DAC and generating the control signal applied to the tunable laser, wherein the amplifier is designed to compensate for wavelength tuning nonlinearity of the tunable laser such that a change in the output wavelength is substantially proportional to a chance in the value of the signal from the logic circuit.