Performance Study of 40-Gb/s RZ Signals Through Cascaded Thin-Film Filters with Large Dispersion Slope

The performance of 40-Gb/s RZ signals through cascaded thinfilm filters is investigated by both numerical and analytical means. It is observed that the filtering effects can reduce the eye closure penalties caused by the large dispersion slope of the thin-film filters. In addition, the performance can be further improved by proper frequency detuning between the signal and the center of the filter. The combined effects of dispersion slope and filtering on 40-Gb/s signals are investigated analytically and explained for typical bit patterns.