A photonic analog-to-digital conversion scheme using Mach-Zehnder modulators with identical half-wave voltages.
A novel photonic analog-to-digital conversion scheme implemented using an array of Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) with identical half-wave voltages is proposed and demonstrated. It is different from the scheme proposed by Taylor where the MZMs should have geometrically scaled half-wave voltages; the proposed scheme here uses MZMs with identical half-wave voltages, which eliminates the need for the MZMs to have very low half-wave voltages. By properly biasing the MZMs, the transfer functions of the MZMs are laterally shifted, which leads to the generation of a linear binary code to represent the analog input signal. The use of the MZMs with identical half-wave voltages simplifies greatly the design and implementation, which provides a high potential for integration. A proof-of-concept experiment for analog-to-digital conversion with a quantization level of 16 is demonstrated.
Department of Information & Electronics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027 China. chihao@zju.edu.cn
Hao
H
Chi
Jianping
J
Yao
D000703:Analog-Digital Conversion; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005336:Fiber Optic Technology / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D017785:Photons; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*