Photonic Analog-to-Digital-Converters – Comparison of a MZM-Sampler with an Optoelectronic Switched-Emitter-Follower Sampler

In this paper two integrated photonic Analog-to-Digital Converter architectures are modeled and simulated. The results are compared in terms of bandwidth, linearity, and jitter performance. The Mach-Zehnder-Modulator based sampler is implemented on system level in Lumerical Interconnect. The effective resolution is dependent on the average optical power, the modulation index, and the applied post-processing. It stays above 7 Bit for a modulation index of m=0.31 up to 20 GHz. The optoelectronic Switched-Emitter-Follower architecture is designed in a 250nm SiGe BiCMOS photonic process and the post-layout transient noise simulations show an effective resolution of over 7 Bit for an input amplitude of 200mVpp up to 50 GHz.