Novel 2N bit bipolar photonic digital-to-analog converter based on optical DQPSK modulation coupled with differential detection

Opt Lett. 2012 May 1;37(9):1502-4. doi: 10.1364/OL.37.001502.

Abstract

A novel 2N bit bipolar photonic digital-to-analog converter (PDAC) scenario based on the optical differential quadrature phase shift keying (ODQPSK) modulation coupled with differential detection is proposed. Compared with other proposed schemes, this bipolar PDAC has a greater dynamic range and a larger noise margin with good scalabilities both in speed and resolution. We demonstrate a 4 bit PDAC in a proof-of-principle experiment at a sampling rate of 2.5 GS/s.