Integration of a proposed all-optical analog-to-digital converter using self-frequency shifting in fiber and a pulse-shaping technique

Integration of a proposed all-optical analog-to-digital (A/D) converter is described. To realize a high-speed and high-throughput system, optical A/D conversion has attracted much attention. A/D conversion generally consists of three processes of sampling, quantization and coding. Whereas an optical sampling technique has already been realized, there have been few investigations on the optical quantization and optical coding technique. We previously proposed an all-optical A/D converter which realizes both optical quantization and optical coding. In this paper, we integrate the proposed all-optical A/D converter to improve its performance and stability. We verify the operation of the integrated all-optical A/D converter composed of a short high nonlinear fiber, arrayed waveguide gratings and variable optical attenuators. (c) 2005 The Optical Society of Japan.