Coded output photonic A/D converter based on photonic crystal slow-light structures

A photonic analog-to-digital converter (PADC) utilizing a slow-light photonic crystal Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is proposed, to enable the optically coded output of a PADC with reduced device size and power consumption. Assuming an index modulation for the MZI on the Taylor's PADC structure, limiting factors in device size, speed, and effective number of bits are derived considering the signal transition time of the light and the slow light dispersion effects. Details of the device design and results of a time domain assessment of the device performance is described with discussions on the feasibility of sub-mm size, 20GS/s operation of the device having the ENOB (effective number of bits) > 5.