A practical 1550-nm polarization independent semiconductor optical amp
lifier configuration employing compressively strained quantum wells an
d a few commercially available optical components is reported, Crossta
lk from counter propagating light, which may easily occur in such a co
nfiguration, has been sufficiently suppressed for practical use, For t
he entire configuration a net fiber-to-fiber gain of 17 dB, a 3-dB sat
uration output power of 13 dBm and a noise figure of 9 dB have been de
monstrated, The polarization dependence was only 0.7 dB, The polarizat
ion independent 1550-nm semiconductor optical amplifier reported here
is attractive when power consumption and compactness are of major conc
ern and especially for applications involving nonlinear signal process
ing and switching.