RESEARCH AREA: Digital Photonics Subsystems

Area Leader Dr. Antonella Bogoni

The main goal of this area is the realisation of all-optical subsystems based on discrete devices, able to develop a wide range of functions for the ultra-fast signal digital processing. Similarly to the electronic domain basic blocks as logic gates, switches, and flip-flops, are identified and optically implemented. Moreover such fundamental sub-systems are exploited to realize more complex combinatorial networks as add/drop modules, analog-to-digital and digital-to-analog converters, counters, full-adders, comparators, etc.. First of all, optical technologies are studied with the objective of impleŽmenting optical supercomputing and all-Optical Packet Switched (OPS) networks where the packet forwarding is completely carried out in the optical domain, exploiting all-optical label processing. Potential of digital photonic processing in high bandwidth access networks are investigated too. Other applications not strictly related to optical communications are addressed. Photonic-based fully digital radar systems are under investigation with the scope to increase the system frequency guaranteeing ultra-low phase noise, high stability, compactness and low cost. Moreover nonlinear optics are exploited to develop ultra-fast optical instrumentation as THz optical sampling oscilloscope and ultra-short pulse laser. Big efforts are spent to investigate new technologies for making more efficient digital photonic processing. Plasmonics, silicon photonics, hybrid technologies are under investigation in order to obtain low power consumption and low cost solutions. Finally component design skills are being developed from material level to circuit level, in order to reduce the bandgap between technology and system people and implement integrated customized device prototypes.