Photonic digital-to-analog conversion based on wavelength multiplexing

A novel photonic digital-to-analog conversion (PDAC) scheme, which is based on optical intensity weighting and multiplexing/summing of different wavelengths, is proposed. The employment of wavelength multiplexing in the system, which conducts the function of modulated light intensity summation, greatly simplifies the system complexity and improves the conversion speed/accuracy limited by large-area photo-detectors and associated electronics. A 4-bit PDAC with a conversion speed of 10 GS/s demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed scheme. In addition, the performance degradation induced by the limited extinction ratios of the applied electro-optic modulators, the synchronization errors among different wavelength channels, and the bit resolutions of the built system is also discussed.