HIGHLY-PARALLEL HIGH-BANDWIDTH OPTICAL HOLOGRAPHIC ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTORS

PHYSICAL OPTICS CORPORATION (POC) WILL DEMONSTRATE A NOVEL OPTICAL ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL (A/D) CONVERTOR BASED ON A HOLOGRAPHIC FABRY-PEROT RESONATOR. THE STRUCTURE CONTAINS AN OPTICAL ELECTRO-OPTIC MATERIAL WHICH IS EMBEDDED IN A HOLOGRAPHICALLY-MADE FABRY-PEROT RESONATOR AND A VOLUME DIFFUSER WHICH CONVERTS AN INCIDENT BEAM INTO A FAN BEAM WITH A PARTICULAR ANGULAR SPREAD. THE A/D CONVERSION IS ACHIEVED BY THE MODULATION OF THE OPTICAL PATH LENGTH (OR REFRACTIVE INDEX) OF A FABRY-PEROT RESONATOR. THE MODULATION DEPENDS ON THE STRENGTH OF THE ANALOG INPUT ELECTRIC VOLTAGE. FURTHERMORE, THE RESONATOR MIRRORS OF THEPROPOSED HOLOGRAPHIC FABRY-PEROT CAVITY ARE MADE IN A COHERENTLY COUPLED MANNER. THUS, THE FINESSE OF THE CAVITY CAN BE VERY HIGH. THE PROPOSED OPTICAL A/D CONVERTORHAS THE FOLLOWING UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS, NOT ACHIEVABLE SIMULTANEOUSLY BY ANY OTHER STATE-OF-THE-ART TECHNOLOGIES: (1) HIGH DATA SAMPLING RATE (> 10 GHZ) IS POSSIBLE; (2) HIGHBIT CONVERSION RESOLUTION (> 10 BITS) IS AVAILABLE VIA THE HIGH-FINESSE HOLOGRAPHIC FABRY-PEROT RESONATOR; (3) NO OPTICAL OR ELECTRONIC THRESHOLD DEVICE IS REQUIRED; AND (4) PARALLEL A/D CONVERSION CHANNELS ARE ACHIEVABLE THROUGH A 2D ARRAY OF RESONATOR ELEMENTS.