CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

This paper describes a novel optical leaky integrator for an all-optical sigma-delta modulator. The device is designed and built in a non-interferometric structure, which consists of a nonlinear fiber loop and a wavelength converter. The system is characterized for square input signals in MHz range. The integration time-constant of the integrator can be easily adjusted over the full interval of the input period by modifying the SOA driving current. Experimental results are in excellent agreements with numerical simulations and are used to obtain delta-sigma modulator design parameters. The operating frequency can be increased without difficulty up to GHz range simply by reducing the loop length.