Optical threshold logic analog-to-digital converters using self electro-optic effect devices

摘要

A novel 2-bit optical-input optical-output analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is demonstrated in self electro-optic device (SEED) technology using a threshold logic technique. The threshold gate was constructed using a resistor-SEED (R-SEED) which is composed of a large value resistor and a SEED area of 500 um x 500 um. Each gate operates as a majority function that has a threshold level controlled by a fixed optical input. The ADC was constructed using two R-SEED gates operating at wavelength of 846 nm. The test bench set-up operates at 100 Hz. However, as the proposed architecture is scalable, it can operate at much higher speeds and generate larger number of bits. This architecture is only limited by the switching speed of the SEED and propagation delay through each threshold gate.