Patent ID: 11880116
Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Field: Optics (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 14:
15. An optical digital-to-analog converter comprising:
a first splitter configured to split a single light beam into N light beams corresponding to bits of an N-bit electrical digital signal and make the N light beams different in optical intensities such that (N−1) light beams corresponding to the bits except a least significant bit of the N-bit electrical digital signal each have an optical intensity which is a predetermined multiple of an optical intensity of a light beam of the N light beams corresponding to a next less significant bit of the N-bit electrical digital signal, wherein N is an integer of 2 or more, and wherein the predetermined multiple is four;
an optical intensity modulator configured to individually intensity-modulate the N light beams according to corresponding bits of the N-bit electrical digital signal; and
a combiner configured to combine the N light beams into a combined light beam and output the combined light beam.