Design of an Optical Full Adder based on Electro-Optic effect in Mach-Zehnder Interferometers

The Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) fabricated on Lithium Niobate is an electro-optic device, has dynamic abilities to switch optical signals between the cross and bar ports, which is useful in ultra-fast switching circuits. MZIs can be used as basic building blocks in realizing ultra-fast complex Boolean logic based digital optical circuits. EMI and power dissipation problems that arise in high bit rate electronic circuits can easily be avoided in optical switching circuits. In this paper, we use the switching mechanism of MZIs, in designing an optical full adder which generates both sum and carry bits in optical domain, for three given digital electrical signals: A and B input signals and C carry signal. A total of ten MZIs are used, A, B and C act as control signals, are applied to the electrodes of three distinct group of MZIs. We use OptiBPM for designing the optical full adder and the simulations are carried out to verify for all combinations of A, B and C signals.