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:
Sep. 12, 2000
Filed:
Dec. 24, 1997
William S Song, Lexington, MA (US);
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA (US);
Abstract
An ultra-fast electrooptic analog-to-digital converter is described. The A/D converter includes an electrooptic modulator that generates a modulated light beam from an incident light beam in response to an applied modulation signal. An optical demultiplexer is positioned to receive the modulated light beam. The optical input of a respective one of a plurality of photodetectors is optically coupled to a respective one of a plurality of demultiplexed modulated light beams. Each of the plurality of photodetectors generates an electrical signal in response to an intensity of the demultiplexed modulated light beam that is coupled to its optical input. A plurality of charge comparators compares electrical signals generated in response to the intensities of the demultiplexed modulated light beam to a reference signal. The output of each of the plurality of charge comparators generates a digital representation of the incident light beam.