Photonic Recirculating Delay Line for Analog-to-Digital Conversions and Other Applications

摘要

Experimental results for a photonic recirculating delay line for high-speed, high-resolution Analog-to-Digital Converted (ADC) and other applications is presented. The approach modifies an analog fiber optic link with a recirculating optical loop as a means to store a time-limited microwave signal so that it may be digitized by using a slower, conventional electronic ADC. Detailed analytical analysis of the dynamic range and noise figure show that under appropriate conditions the microwave signal degradation is sufficiently small so as to allow the digitization of a multi-gigahertz signal with a resolution greater than 10 effective bits. Experimental results provided support the theory.