ECOC 2021 Post-Deadline Paper

320 GHz analog-to-digital converter exploiting Kerr soliton combs and photonic-electronic spectral stitching
ECOC2021

September 2021: Researchers from IPQ/IMT have demonstrated a photonic-electronic analog-to-digital converter (ADC) offering a record-high acquisition bandwidth of 320 GHz. The system relies on a high-speed electro-optic modulator for translating the analog electrical waveform into an optical signal, which is then spectrally sliced and coherently detected using a Kerr soliton comb serving as a multi-wavelength local oscillator (LO).

The results were presented as a post-deadline paper at ECOC 2021. ECOC is the largest conference on optical communications in Europe. Only a small number of post-deadline submissions are accepted for presentation by a panel of experts, and those papers represent the latest groundbreaking technical achievements in the field.