Symmetrically Coupled Semiconductor Optical Amplifiers as Optical Quantizer for Photonic Analog-to-Digital Converter

Further digital signal processing (DSP) enhancement requires corresponding advances in analog-to-digital connverter (ADC) technology, which is presently limited by conventional electronic approaches. These limitations can be overcome by a series of photonic-based innovations proposed by the IFOS team to realize a photonic ADC (pADC). The innovations are expected to enable highly scaled-up quantization performance by leveraging serially-coupled multiple quantum-well (MQW) semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). The approach is fully compatible with rapidly advancing photonic integrated circuit (PIC) design toolkits and fabrication techniques. This platform has the inherent advantage of yielding extremely low size, weight, power, and cost (SWaP-C) with highly scalable performance. The IFOS team will leverage its proven experience in the custom design and deployment of Application Specific PICs (ASPICs) for demanding applications. In Phase I, we will develop a reliable PIC-based SOA quantizer design for pADC compatible with fabrication on extremely small dies (millimeter-range dimensions) and demonstrate via modeling and simulation scalable performance exceeding 10-GHz bandwidth, 10-bit resolution, and 60-dB dynamic range. Phase II will fabricate and fully characterize a complete pADC prototype based on the Phase I design guidelines and develop a path for defense avionics operational environment validation in Phase III.