Photonic digital-to-analog conversion and digitally driven integrated optics modulator

A novel integrated optical modulator based on a multi-electrode Mach-Zehnder modulator has been developed and analyzed. The device has superior performance in terms of linearity, dynamic range and implementation complexity. The improvements are achieved by utilizing a unique mapping method between the analog input and the digital sequence applied to the device, and by an optimized sectioning method for the electrodes. Further improvement in linearity is attained by allowing the number of electrodes to be larger than the number of digital input bits. The device can serve as a photonic digital-to-analog converter, accepting electrical digital signal and converting it into an optical (or electrical) analog signal. The device can also serve as an M-ary modulator for generating optical multi-level signals for coherent optical communication.