The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Apr. 21, 2026
Filed:
Jul. 13, 2023
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd., Hsin-Chu, TW;
TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD., Hsinchu, TW;
Abstract
An optical analog-to-digital converter (O-ADC) converts an input optical signal (IOS) into an output digital signal. The O-ADC includes ADC stages, each of which can generate an electrical bit of the output digital signal and an optical bit. An ADC stage can include a photodetector, an ADC circuit, and an optical output circuit. The photodetector generates an analog electrical signal based on a portion of the IOS. The ADC circuit generates a digital electrical signal (electrical bit) based on the analog electrical signal and a reference analog electrical signal, which is based on a portion of a reference optical signal (ROS). The optical output circuit provides an output optical signal (OOS) (optical bit) based on the digital electrical signal and the portion of the ROS. Photodetectors of subsequent ADC stages generate analog electrical signals based further on an OOS from an optical output circuit of a previous respective ADC stage.