Patent · US Expired

Photonic parallel analog-to-digital converter

US6525682B2 · kind B2 · utility

46Cited by
7References
37Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMay 3, 2001
Grant dateFeb 25, 2003
Priority date
Expiry dateMay 3, 2021

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG02F7/00
  • WIPO fieldBasic communication processes
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

A photonically sampled analog-to-digital converter using parallel channels of sampling and quantizing. The parallel combination achieves cancellation of the spurs that result from the nonlinear transfer function of the samplers. The samplers feed a dual-detector optoelectronic receiver that has differential inputs for suppression of laser intensity noise. The outputs of the multiple photonic samplers are averaged to reduce the effects of shot or thermal noise from the optoelectronic receiver of a sampler. The errors produced by the quantization process can be reduced by using a delta-sigma modulator-based analog-to-digital convertor as the quantizer which provides noise-spectrum shaping and filtering.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.