Wideband SiN pulse interleaver for optically-enabled analog-to-digital conversion: a device-to-system analysis with cyclic equalization

<jats:p>We present the design and experimental characterization of a silicon nitride pulse interleaver based on coupled resonator optical waveguide filters. In order to achieve a targeted free spectral range of 1.44 THz, which is large given the reduced optical confinement of the silicon nitride platform, individual ring resonators are designed with tapered waveguides. Its application to time-interleaved photonically-assisted ADCs is analyzed by combining experimental characterization of the photonic integrated circuit with a comprehensive model of the entire ADC. The impact of fundamental signal distortion and noise sources affecting the converter is investigated and suitable equalization techniques at the digital signal processing level are evaluated. The novel application of a simple but powerful equalization filter in the DSP domain allows for a significant improvement of the digitized signal SNR. An ENOB of 5 over a 75 GHz bandwidth (150 GS/s) and an ENOB of 4.3 over a 100 GHz bandwidth (200 GS/s) are expected to be achievable with compact and off-the-shelf single-section semiconductor mode locked lasers, that can be further improved with lower noise light sources.</jats:p>