Optically Enabled ADCs and Application to Optical Communications

IEEE Open Journal of the Solid-State Circuits Society, vol. 1, pp. 209–221

Abstract

Electrical-optical signal processing has been shown to be a promising path to overcome the limitations of state-of-theart all-electrical data converters. In addition to ultra-broadband signal processing, it allows leveraging ultra-low jitter mode-locked lasers and thus increasing the aperture jitter limited effective number of bits at high analog signal frequencies. In this paper, we review our recent progress towards optically enabled time-and frequency-interleaved analog-to-digital converters, as well as their monolithic integration in electronic-photonic integrated circuits. For signal frequencies up to 65 GHz, an optoelectronic track-andhold amplifier based on the source-emitter-follower architecture is shown as a power efficient approach in optically enabled BiCMOS technology. At higher signal frequencies, integrated photonic filters enable signal slicing in the frequency domain and further scaling of the conversion bandwidth, with the reconstruction of a 140 GHz optical signal being shown. We further show how such optically enabled data converter architectures can be applied to a nonlinear Fourier transform based integrated transceiver in particular and discuss their applicability to broadband optical links in general.

Authors 15

1. Andrea Zazzi Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

2. Juliana Müller Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

3. Maxim Weizel

   Paderborn University

   Affiliation as printed

   Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, F|rstenallee 11, 33102 Paderborn, Germany

4. Jonas Koch

   Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

   Affiliation as printed

   Chair of Communications, Kiel University, Kaiserstr. 2, 24143 Kiel, Germany

5. Dengyang Fang

   Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engesstr. 5, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

6. Alvaro Moscoso‐Mártir Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

7. Ali Tabatabaei Mashayekh Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

8. Arka Dipta Das Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

   RWTH Aachen University

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

9. Daniel Drayß

   Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engesstr. 5, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

10. Florian Merget Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

    RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany

11. Franz X. Kärtner

    Universität Hamburg · Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY

    Affiliation as printed

    German Electron-Synchrotron (DESY) and the University of Hamburg, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany

12. Stephan M. Pachnicke

    Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel

    Affiliation as printed

    Chair of Communications, Kiel University, Kaiserstr. 2, 24143 Kiel, Germany

13. Christian G. Koos

    Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Engesstr. 5, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany

14. J. Christoph Scheytt

    Paderborn University

    Affiliation as printed

    Heinz Nixdorf Institute, University of Paderborn, F|rstenallee 11, 33102 Paderborn, Germany

15. Jeremy Witzens Aachen Institute of Integrated Photonics (IPH)

    Universität Hamburg · Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY · RWTH Aachen University

    Affiliation as printed

    Institute of Integrated Photonics, RWTH Aachen University, 52074 Aachen, Germany. (e-mail: jwitzens@iph.rwth-aachen.de)

    German Electron-Synchrotron (DESY) and the University of Hamburg, Notkestr. 85, 22607 Hamburg, Germany