Abstract

We report the demonstration of an electrooptic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) operating at 828-megasamples (MS)/sec which has the potential for 4-bit resolution. This converter is the type originally proposed by Taylor¹ and depends on a guided-wave interferometric modulator array to perform the conversion and on mode-locked laser pulses to perform the sampling. In recent years, two detailed design studies of this converter, a number of fundamental experiments, and several electrooptic converters² have been reported. These latter devices operate below the demonstrated hybrid Si IC capability of 5 bits at 450 MS/ sec.³ The device reported here extends the sampling rate of electrooptic ADCs to the gigahertz range and is the largest bandwidth ADC demonstrated.

© 1982 Optical Society of America