AbstractA compact and stable system for the generation of a super‐continuum (SC) at the 1550 nm region is proposed and demonstrated. Mode‐locked pulses at a pulse‐width of 200 fs and a peak power of 2.2 kW are generated using the nonlinear polarization rotation technique in a short length of Bi‐EDF of about 48.2 cm. The generated pulses at a repetition rate of 41.6 MHz are then launched directly into a 100 m long highly non‐linear fiber, without requiring any amplification stages. The generated SC spectrum covers a range of 1200–1950 nm. The wavelength bandwidth of the SC is over 413.5 nm at the 3‐dB power level and the SC pulse width is about 90 fs. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 54:983–987, 2012; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26744