GigOptix’s 100G Mach Zehnder Modulator Enables 110GHz Time Stretched Analog to Digital Conversions at UCLA

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GigOptix Inc. (OTCBB:GGOX), a leading provider of electronic engines for the optically connected digital world today announced successful results from collaborative work with Prof. Bahram Jalali’s engineering group at UCLA on using GigOptix’s LX8900 in a novel 110GHz time stretched analog-to-digital conversion (ADC) application.

“We are very happy to see these excellent results coming back so quickly from our collaboration with UCLA”

Ultra-wide-band ADC is one of the most critical problems faced in communication, instrumentation and radar systems. Digital Signal Processing (DSP) has revolutionized modern communication and radar systems by offering unprecedented performance and adaptivity. For broad-band systems, however, the application of DSP is hindered by difficulty in capturing the wide-band signal. The standard approach to deal with this problem is to employ parallelism through the use of the time-interleaved ADC architecture. Here, the signal is captured by a parallel array of slow digitizers. This architecture suffers from mismatches between digitizers that limit the dynamic range and therefore limits the resolution of such sample-interleaved ADC systems. An entirely new ADC architecture called time-stretched ADC overcomes these issues using high speed broadband Mach-Zehnder modulators. Here, the analog signal is slowed down prior to sampling and quantization by an electronic digitizer in the optical domain using the certain non-linearities in the optical fiber. This technique has applications in ultra high frequency communication, instrumentation and radar systems.

“GigOptix’s unique EO polymer modulator technology is enabling a new branch of application in ultra high speed RF photonics,” commented UCLA Researcher Ali Motafakker. “Ultra-wide-band ADC is a very challenging problem and our team is very excited about the performance of the LX8900 device and its potential to solve issues in this field. We are looking forward to continuing to drive this technology forward.”

“We are very happy to see these excellent results coming back so quickly from our collaboration with UCLA,” stated Andrea Betti-Berutto, Chief Technology Officer of GigOptix. “This is a significant moment for GigOptix in that it not only verifies our vision of combining our broadband EO polymer modulator technology with our broadband RF expertise and but also confirms our strategy of collaborating with leading research groups to define new applications for our technologies.”

LX8900 samples are available immediately. Please contact sales@gigoptix.com for datasheets, samples and pricing.

About GigOptix Inc.

GigOptix is a leading fabless manufacturer of electronic engines for the optically connected digital world. The Company offers a broad portfolio of high speed electronic devices including polymer electro-optic modulators, modulator drivers, laser drivers and TIAs for telecom, datacom, Infiniband and consumer optical systems, covering serial and parallel communication technologies from 1G to 100G. For more information, please visit www.GigOptix.com.

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