Digital-to-analog conversion using electrooptic modulators

A photonic implementation of optical digital-to-analog converter is proposed using electrooptic polymer modulators. A 2-bit implementation at low frequencies is experimentally demonstrated at a conversion rate of 80 MS/s which is limited by the bandwidth of the photodetector and its associated electronics. Some of the technical issues that must be overcome to reach our goal of simultaneous high-speed (tens of gigasamples per second) and high-resolution (on the order of 12 bits) performance are discussed.