TeraSlice

The recent improvements in digital signal processing have led to devices that permit real-time processing of ultra-broadband signals with analogue bandwidths of hundreds of GHz. However, digitizing such signals is still impossible as conventional analogue-to-digital converters (ADC) have limited bandwidth. The vision of the TeraSlice project is to develop and bring the next-generation of ADCs to the telecom market. TeraSlice aims at demonstrating a novel concept for high-speed real-time analogue-to-digital conversion of ultra-broadband waveforms that can overcome the limitations of state-of-the-art electronic and photonic analog-to-digital converters. The targeted bandwidth for the conversion is 320 GHz. All building blocks constituting the architecture are fully integrated on-chip to obtain a cost-effective and low-footprint device. The technology solution is based on optical frequency comb source, optical filtering, high bandwidth modulator, DEMUX and IQ detector arrays, all realized in chip-scale form factor.

The TeraSlice consortium presents an overview of our technology solution – ultrafast signal processing – and what we have carried out so far in the project, as well as our vision towards the future. Our technology approach is featured along with discrete components from our lab experimental demonstrations.