Photonics technologies for analog-to-digital conversion at GHz sampling rates

Conceptually, picosecond pulses generated by a mode-locked (ML) laser are ideal vehicles that can help achieve accurate impulse sampling of an analog signal. As illustrated an electro-optic modulator can be used to impress the analog input onto the optical pulse train. After photodetection, the received signal due to the modulated pulse train is sent, in turn, to an electronic quantizer for digitization.