Taming electrical solitons - a new direction in picosecond electronics

The authors recently introduced the first electrical soliton oscillator that self-generates a periodic, stable train of electrical soliton pulses. The soliton oscillator, which has been historically difficult to realize due to the soliton's instability-prone dynamics, was made possible by combining the well-known nonlinear transmission line supporting electrical soliton propagation with an amplifier that "tames" the instability-prone soliton dynamics on the nonlinear line. The ability to self-generate well-controlled solitons demonstrated in this work offers a new direction in picosecond electronics. This paper reviews this recent work and discusses future extensions