Patent ID: 8569675

Claim:
A Demodulator for optical pulse position modulated signals comprising: a splitter having an input receiving an optical signal pulse and an optical clock pulse separated in time by a time difference and generating a first output from the optical signal pulse and a second output from the optical clock pulse; a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) operating at a bias current, receiving the optical signal pulse, the optical clock pulse and generating an amplified optical clock pulse; wherein the semiconductor optical amplifier has a transparency wavelength, the optical signal pulse has a signal wavelength, the optical clock pulse has a optical wavelength, and wherein the transparency wavelength is shorter than or equal to the signal wavelength, and the signal wavelength is shorter than or equal to the clock pulse wavelength; wherein the bias current is selected such that the optical signal pulse resets a gain of the semiconductor optical amplifier; and the optical clock pulse experiences the gain of the semiconductor optical amplifier proportional to the time difference; a photodetector receiving the amplified optical clock pulse and generating an electrical current.