| Class / Patent application number | Description | Number of patent applications / Date published |
|---|
| 341137000 | Using optical device, (e.g., fiber optics, cathode ray tubes) | 27 |
| 20080198051 | Analog-to-digital conversion controller, optical receiving device, optical receiving method, and waveform-distortion compensating device - An optical receiving device of the present invention receives optical signals from an optical transmitting device which uses a modulation format wherein an optical intensity waveform of each symbol is return-to-zero (RZ) pulse, and converts the received optical signals into digital signals by a conversion process of an analog to digital (AD) converter. A control-value calculating unit subsequent to the AD converter digitally processes the digital signals, retrieves an absolute value of the digital signals or a value corresponding one-to-one with the absolute value of the digital signals, estimates errors from an appropriate timing of a sampling timing in the AD converter based on the absolute value of the digital signals or the value corresponding one-to-one with the absolute value of the digital signals, and calculates a control value controlling the sampling timing based on the estimated errors. Based on the control value, a phase of a pulse regulating the sampling timing of AD conversion can be compensated. | 08-21-2008 |
| 20080266154 | Optical quantizing unit and optical A/D converter - An optical quantizing unit includes an optical divider dividing 1 | 10-30-2008 |
| 20080309532 | Solid-state imaging device and method of manufacturing thereof - The invention provides a solid-state image sensor comprising a pixel array, a reading circuit, an analog-to-digital (A/D) circuit, a decoding circuit, a driving circuit, a power array, a spare circuit, a fuse array, and a repair unit. When one described element fails, a repair procedure is applied to select a corresponding element from the spare circuit to replace the failed element via the fuse array. | 12-18-2008 |
| 20090033532 | HIGH RESOLUTION COLUMN-BASED ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER WITH WIDE INPUT VOLTAGE RANGE FOR DENTAL X-RAY CMOS IMAGE SENSOR - An imaging system including column-parallel ADCs that operate in response to a single slope global ramp signal and a matched global ramp line signal that has a voltage representative of a dark pixel value. The signal paths of the global ramp signal and the matched global ramp line signal are matched to minimize noise effects. Prior to performing a pixel read operation, the global ramp signal is increased through a first voltage range (below the dark pixel value) to ensure that the column-parallel ADCs are operating in a linear range. The first voltage range can be adjusted to cancel offset error associated with the column parallel ADCs. The column-parallel ADCs provide output signals having a full voltage swing between V | 02-05-2009 |
| 20090189797 | Opto-Electronic Analog-to-Digital Converter - In one embodiment, an opto-electronic analog-to-digital converter is provided that includes: an optical comb generator for generating a plurality of optical comb lines; a tunable optical filter adapted to select a portion of the optical comb lines responsive to an analog signal being digitized; a diffractive media for spatially mapping the selected optical comb lines and an array of photodetectors for detecting the spatially mapped optical comb lines. | 07-30-2009 |
| 20090251345 | PHOTONIC FILTER BANK FOR HIGH-SPEED ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERSION - An analog to digital converter (ADC) structure and method includes a photonic filter bank having at least two filters. The at least two filters are configured to create a corresponding spectral tributary from an input signal at a target rate, and the at least two filters are configured to exhibit orthogonality properties between respective tributaries. An optical/electrical (O/E) converter is coupled to each of the at least two filters in a respective spectral tributary to convert an optical input to an electrical output. An analog to digital converter (ADC) is coupled to each of the O/E converters in a respective spectral tributary to sample the electrical output at a fraction of a target rate and to convert a sampled analog electrical output into a digital signal. A synthesis filter is coupled to each of the ADCs in a respective spectral tributary to reconstruct the input signal digitally at the target rate. | 10-08-2009 |
| 20090295611 | Optical Digital to Analog Converter - According to one embodiment of the invention, a digital to analog converter for converting a digital signal to an analog optical signal includes a light source and a plurality optical switches. Each optical switch is responsive to a respective one of a plurality of bits of a digital signal to selectively allow transmission of light from the light source through the switch. The digital to analog converter also includes a light combination system operable to combine the light passed through each of the switches and produce an analog optical signal indicative of the digital signal. | 12-03-2009 |
| 20100201554 | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR GENERATING AN ELECTRICAL SIGNAL WITH A WIDE BAND ARBITRARY WAVEFORM - A device for generating an electrical signal with a wide band arbitrary waveform comprising (i) at least two continuous wave lasers each being adapted to produce light at a different wavelength; (ii) at least one pulse generator adapted to convert the light from the lasers into optical pulse trains; (iii) a plurality of optical modulators, each modulator being adapted to receive an optical pulse train at least one wavelength and modulate the optical pulse train in response to an electromagnetic signal; (iv) an optically dispersive element adapted to receive the optical pulse trains from the modulators and to introduce a wavelength dependent delay between the optical pulse trains; and, (v) a photodetector for receiving the modulated dispersed optical pulse trains and producing an analogue electrical signal in response thereto. | 08-12-2010 |
| 20100207794 | METHOD OF ENCODING/DECODING DATA, METHOD OF DETECTING DATA, AND METHOD OF RECORDING/REPRODUCING DATA - A data encoding method is provided. In this method, a plurality of n-bit input codes is converted into a plurality of M | 08-19-2010 |
| 20100277354 | Technique for photonic analog-to-digital signal conversion - In an inventive photonic analog-to-digital signal converter (ADC), multiple opto-electric sampling devices are employed to successively sample an analog signal input. Optical clock signals having the same frequency but different clock phases are used, which are associated with the opto-electric sampling devices, respectively. Each sampling device takes samples of the analog signal input in response to the optical clock signal associated therewith. The resulting samples are processed to produce quantized samples. The inventive ADC outputs a digital signal representing the quantized samples. | 11-04-2010 |
| 20100302084 | Photonic D/A - An all-optical combined serial-to-parallel and digital-to-analog convertor using standard WDM technology is realized. The system is based on bit interleaving and cross-gain modulation (XGM) in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). The optical system can operate on multiple-bit digital words at a very high bit rate. The analog output forms series of pulses with the amplitude of each pulse taking one of the eight discrete values. A low pass filter may be used to turn this bit stream into a continuous waveform, and thus arbitrary waveforms are generated. Unlike many current digital-to-analog converter designs, which double in size with each additional bit, the design presented here allows a linear growth in components, thus making higher bit systems practical. | 12-02-2010 |
| 20100315273 | DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERTER - A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) includes multiple electro-optical converters to generate multiple first optical signals in response to multiple input signals, multiple optical attenuators to attenuate intensities of the first optical signals and to generate multiple second optical signals, an optical coupler to combine the second optical signals and to generate a third optical signal, and a photodetector to convert the third optical signal into an electrical analog signal. | 12-16-2010 |
| 20110043396 | Optical Sampling Method for Analog to Digital Conversion - A method and apparatus for encoding data. A first pair of optical signals having a first phase difference is generated in response to receiving an input signal having a voltage. A second pair of optical signals having a second phase difference is generated in response to receiving an input signal having a voltage. The first pair of optical signals is combined to form a first optical signal having a first intensity. The second pair of optical signals is combined to form a second optical signal having a second intensity. The first intensity of the first optical signal reaches a peak at a different time from the second intensity of the second optical signal. | 02-24-2011 |
| 20110095923 | IMAGE SENSING SYSTEM - In general, a method includes comparing a first input signal with a second input signal to produce an output signal. The first input signal corresponds to an amount of light detected by a sensor, and the second input signal corresponds to an aggregated value of the output signal. The method may also include aggregating the output signal in a digital accumulator and converting a digital signal from an output of the digital accumulator to an analog signal. | 04-28-2011 |
| 20110234435 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SELECTIVE WAVELENGTH INTERLEAVED FILTERED TECHNIQUE (SWIFT) ADC - A system and method for selective wavelength interleaved filtering technique for analog to digital conversion (ADC) comprises a remote aperture for analog input, a modulator operable to transform the analog input into an initial optical signal, a photonic front end having high resolution optical filters operable to filter the optical signal into multiple subsequent optical signals and supply local oscillators for downconversion into electrical signals, a segmented subsystem having a plurality of ADCs, each operable to receive and convert one subsequent optical signal of the optical signals, and a memory buffer and process subsystem operable to reconstruct the converted subsequent optical signals into a digital representation of the analog input by executing reconstruction algorithms. Provision is made for compensation of distortions arising in the electrical to optical to electrical conversion process. The optical filters can include a self-registered filter wherein individual passbands are intrinsically aligned to one another. | 09-29-2011 |
| 20110234436 | OPTICAL ANALOGUE TO DIGITAL CONVERTER - An analogue to digital converter ( | 09-29-2011 |
| 20120032827 | OPTICAL DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG CONVERSTION - The present invention relates to Digital-to-Analog conversion in the optical or photonic domain. The present invention provides a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) ( | 02-09-2012 |
| 20120081245 | LINEARIZED OPTICAL DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG MODULATOR - A modulator device for converting digital data into modulation of an optical signal includes an electronic input for receiving an input data word of N bits and an electrically controllable modulator for modulating the intensity of an optical signal, the modulator including M actuating electrodes where M≧N. An electrode actuating device, most preferably a digital-to-digital converter, operates actuating electrodes so that at least one electrode is actuated as a function of values of more than one bit of the input data word. According to an alternative, or supplementary, aspect of the invention, the set of electrodes includes at least one electrode having an effective area which is not interrelated to others of the set by factors of two. In one preferred implementation, a Mach-Zehnder modulator also provides phase modulation to give QAM functionality. Another implementation employs a semiconductor laser. | 04-05-2012 |
| 20120200439 | LASER BASED FREQUENCY STANDARDS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS - Frequency standards based on mode-locked fiber lasers, fiber amplifiers and fiber-based ultra-broad bandwidth light sources, and applications of the same. | 08-09-2012 |
| 20130113641 | OPTICAL INTENSITY-TO-PHASE CONVERTER, MACH-ZEHNDER INTERFEROMETER, OPTICAL A/D CONVERTER, AND METHOD OF CONSTRUCTING OPTICAL INTENSITY-TO-PHASE CONVERTER - An optical intensity-to-phase converter according to the present invention includes first and second waveguides to which a first input light is input, a third waveguide to which a second input light is input, and an interaction region that is provided in common on the second and third waveguides in which the first and second input lights are multiplexed and interact. The optical intensity-to-phase converter provides delay to output lights output from the first and second waveguides based on intensity of the first or second input light. Then, it is possible to provide an optical intensity-to-phase converter that enables simple configuration of an optical A/D converter. | 05-09-2013 |
| 20130214949 | METHOD FOR CONVERTING A DIGITAL SIGNAL INTO OPTICAL PULSES - To that end, it is an object of the invention to provide a method for converting a high-speed digital signal in the form of optical pulses intended to be transmitted within optical guides, within which the signal is converted into a series of optical pulses in three possible phase states (π/6, 5π/6, −π/2) separated from one another two-by-two by an angle greater than π/2. | 08-22-2013 |
| 20130241756 | LIGHT INTENSITY SUBTRACTOR, OPTICAL A-D CONVERTER, AND METHOD FOR SUBTRACTING LIGHT INTENSITY - A light intensity subtractor according to one aspect of the present invention includes a light subtraction unit, a feedback circuit, a light input port, a first light output port, and a second light output port. The light subtraction unit receives input light through the light input port, outputs first output light to the first light output port, and outputs second output light to the second light output port. The light subtraction unit generates the first output light by reducing the light intensity of the second output light from the light intensity of the input light in accordance with a control voltage. The feedback circuit is connected to the light subtraction unit through the second light output port, and outputs the control voltage in accordance with the light intensity of the received second output light. | 09-19-2013 |
| 20130328706 | SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR PHOTONICALLY ASSISTED ANALOG TO DIGITAL SIGNAL CONVERSION - A photonically assisted analog to digital conversion (ADC) system is presented. The system comprises: an optical sampling signal generator configured and operable for generating an optical sampling signal comprising a predetermined sampling pulse sequence in the form of a time separated pulse train of spectral components dispersed in a periodic fashion, where each pulse is distinguishable by a central wavelength thereof different from its neighboring pulses. The generation of the pulse sampling sequence is achieved by combining broadband dispersion and compensation with a periodic dispersion compensator having a free spectral range smaller than the broad bandwidth of the ultrashort pulse. The second innovative element is the introduction of coherent detection with oversampling of the interference terms of the phase modulated pulse sampling sequence and a reference pulse. The over-sampling provides additional measurements of the beat term and by way of error minimization a more reliable phase estimation is provided, translated into a more accurate conversion to digital representation. The system further comprises an electro-optical modulator for interacting an input electric analog signal and an optical sampling signal and generating a modulated optical signal indicative of said input signal; and a detection system configured and operable for receiving said modulated optical signal and generating an output digital signal corresponding to said input electric analog signal. | 12-12-2013 |
| 20140266826 | SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONVERTING WIDEBAND SIGNALS INTO THE DIGITAL DOMAIN USING ELECTRONICS OR GUIDED-WAVE OPTICS - Systems and methods for converting wideband signals into the digital domain are provided herein. The system may include an electronic or guided-wave optic based replicator configured to obtain at least M replicas of a signal applied thereto, and an electronic or guided-wave optic based segmenter configured to segment a signal applied thereto into at least N segments based on time or wavelength. Together, the replicator and the segmenter obtain M×N segment replicas of the received signal. An electronic or guided-wave optic based mixer is configured to multiply the M×N segment replicas by a mixing matrix having dimension M×N and then to form M integrations each of N segment replicas so as to obtain a measurement vector of length M. A signal recovery processor is configured to obtain a digital representation of the received signal based on the measurement vector and the mixing matrix. | 09-18-2014 |
| 20150323852 | TERAHERTZ ANALOG-TO-DIGITAL CONVERTER EMPLOYING ACTIVE-CONTROLLED SPOOFED SURFACE PLASMON POLARITON ARCHITECTURE - A high-speed terahertz analog-to-digital converter (ADC) is provided. The ADC is comprised of an interferometer, a modulator and an array of detectors. The interferometer is configured to receive a carrier signal and guide a spoofed surface plasmon polariton (SSPP) wave in each of its two arms. The SSPP waves are emitted from the free end of each arm into a propagation space and combined in the space to form an interference wave. The modulator modulates the carrier signal in at least one of two arms with a modulating signal, where the radiation pattern of the interference wave in a far field of the propagation space is shifted in accordance with the amplitude of the modulating signal. The array of detectors are spatially separated from the interferometer by the propagation space and arranged to receive the interference wave. | 11-12-2015 |
| 20160043732 | LINEARIZED OPTICAL DIGITAL-TO-ANALOG MODULATOR - A modulator device for converting digital data into modulation of an optical signal includes an electronic input for receiving an input data word of N bits and an electrically controllable modulator for modulating the intensity of an optical signal, the modulator including M actuating electrodes where M≧N. An electrode actuating device, most preferably a digital-to-digital converter, operates actuating electrodes so that at least one electrode is actuated as a function of values of more than one bit of the input data word. According to an alternative, or supplementary, aspect of the invention, the set of electrodes includes at least one electrode having an effective area which is not interrelated to others of the set by factors of two. In one preferred implementation, a Mach-Zehnder modulator also provides phase modulation to give QAM functionality. Another implementation employs a semiconductor laser. | 02-11-2016 |
| 20160126971 | Monotonic Segmented Digital to Analog Converter - In one implementation, a digital analog converter (DAC) is monotonic because the output moves only in the direction of the input and segmented because a more significant portion of the DAC is separated from a less significant portion. The DAC receives an input binary word that includes multiple most significant bits and multiple least significant bits. The DAC decodes the input binary word to an intermediate signal that includes a bit width equal to or greater than a bit width of the binary word. The intermediate signal sets output switches and current source switches. The DAC provides an analog output signal that represents the input binary word. | 05-05-2016 |
