Abstract
A photonic analog-to-digital converter (PADC) utilizing a slow-light photonic crystal Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed, to enable the optically coded output of a PADC with reduced device size and power consumption. Assuming an index modulation for the MZI on the Taylor's PADC structure, limiting factors in device size, speed, and effective number of bits are derived considering the signal transition time of the light and the slow light dispersion effects. Details of the device design and results of a time domain assessment of the device performance is described with discussions on the feasibility of sub-mm size, 20GS/s operation of the device having the ENOB (effective number of bits) > 5.
Highlights
The realization of a high speed (>10GS/s) electronic analog-to-digital (A/D) converter has become a serious challenge for circuit designers
The uniqueness of our design is in the application of slow light advantages to the photonic analog-to-digital converter (PADC) with the introduction of photonic crystal Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguides (CROW) [6]
We write the relationship between the resolution (b) of the Taylor’s PADC, and the required phase change (LLSBΔk, LLSB being the length of the modulation region for the least significant bit: LSB, Δk being the differential of wave vector from the waveguide index change) in the LSB-Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI);
Summary
The realization of a high speed (>10GS/s) electronic analog-to-digital (A/D) converter has become a serious challenge for circuit designers. The uniqueness of our design is in the application of slow light advantages to the PADC with the introduction of photonic crystal Coupled Resonator Optical Waveguides (CROW) [6].
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