Analog to Digital Converter

Abstract

An analog-to-digital converter, comprising: an optical beam splitter (1), M optical detectors (2), M amplification modules (3), and an encoder (4); wherein, the optical beam splitter (1) Each output end corresponds to the input end of a photodetector (2), the output end of each photodetector (2) is connected to the input end of an amplifying module (3), and the output end of each amplifying module (3) is connected An input terminal of the encoder (4); wherein, the optical beam splitter (1) divides the input analog optical signal into M optical signals, and outputs each optical signal to the corresponding optical detector (2) to convert it into a current signal, and each current signal is input to the corresponding amplification module (3) to generate an output voltage, and output to the input end of the corresponding encoder (4), wherein the output of the optical beam splitter (1) can be set to The power of the signal, or the conversion efficiency of the M photodetectors (2), or the amplification factor of the M amplification modules (3), or at least one of the M different decision voltages, makes the encoder (4) according to the M The judgment result of the output voltage and the judgment voltage outputs a digital signal, which can increase the rate of the ADC.

Description

technical field [0001] The embodiments of the present invention relate to the technical field of communications, and in particular, to an analog-to-digital converter. Background technique [0002] The traditional analog-to-digital converter (English: Analog To Digital Converter, referred to as: ADC) circuit usually includes two parts, one part is the sampling head, that is, the sample-and-hold circuit (the so-called Switch-Cap circuit, also called the sample-and-hold device). The circuit is generally composed of metal oxide semiconductor (English: Metal Oxid Semiconductor, MOS for short) switches and capacitors, which are used to realize the function of sampling and holding. The reason why the sampling and holding circuit is used is that when the analog signal is converted to A / D, it needs a certain conversion time from the start of the conversion to the output of the digital signal at the end of the conversion. During this conversion time, the analog signal remains unchang...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

[0004] Although figure 1 The existing ADC architecture shown is the fastest rate among current electrical ADC solutions, but because the sampling head in the prior art is inherently limited by electrical signals (such as capacitance, etc.), the rate of the sampling head is very limited and cannot meet certain requirements. The rate requirements of some scenarios (such as in RF signal processing scenarios), so in order to increase the sampling rate, in some scenarios, multiple sampling heads have to be used for parallel processing, for example, in GHz-level ADC circuits, sometimes it is necessary to compare Set up 4 sampling heads for parallel processing before the circuit breaker

Moreover, for some scenarios with higher rate requirements, such as 5GHz, 10GHz or even higher scenarios, the above-mentioned traditional electrical ADC can no longer meet the needs, so in order to meet the application scenarios with higher rate requirements, how to further increase the ADC rate is Urgent problems

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