CPC G02F 7/00 (2013.01) [G02F 1/3137 (2013.01)] | 12 Claims |
1. An optical analog-to-digital (AD) converter comprising:
wherein the optical AD converter converts an analog signal of information included in inputted signal light into a digital signal, and is formed of N stages corresponding to a number N of bits of the digital signal,
optical waveguides configured to respectively guide the signal light, base light obtained by branching local light, and reference light obtained by branching the local light;
a light receiver configured to detect and compare light levels of the signal light and the reference light, and output a binary comparison result; and
an optical modulator configured to variably control a light level of the base light, based on the binary comparison result, in each stage of the N stages,
wherein an output variably controlled of the optical modulator is multiplexed with the reference light of a next stage.
|