THE PFWM FIBEROPTIC TRANSMISSION-SYSTEM FOR HDTV

A new pulse-analog technique has been developed for the transmission of high-definition TV (HDTV) component signals on an optical fiber: pulse frequency and width modulation (PFWM). With this technique, three component signals are multiplexed into one pulse train in which the frequency is varied in proportion to the amplitude of the luminance signal and width, alternately, to the amplitude of two chrominance signals. This results in a compact and low-cost HDTV transmission system. The PFWM fiber-optic transmission system and its performance are described in this article. Experiments show that this system transmits HDTV component signals and two PCM audio signals over 20-km single-mode fiber and employs a 1.3-μm laser diode (LD) and a germanium-avalanche photodiode (Ge-APD).