Abstract

A new method for performing direct optical analog-to-digital conversion is presented. The technique requires utilization of a specifically designed and fabricated conversion screen. Either coherent or incoherent light sources may be used; hence a wide range of applications is possible. Arithmetic operations of the resultant digital outputs are defined so that the technique can be used to make real-time preprocessors for optical logic circuits, such as half adders or residue-arithmetic optical computers.

© 1978 Optical Society of America

Coherent optical analog-to-digital conversion using a single halftone photograph

H. K. Liu
Appl. Opt. 17(14) 2181-2185 (1978)

Optical direct analog-to-digital conversion for microphones

Hitoshi Mada and Katsuo Koide
Appl. Opt. 22(21) 3411-3413 (1983)

Optical oversampled analog-to-digital conversion

Barry L. Shoop and Joseph W. Goodman
Appl. Opt. 31(26) 5654-5660 (1992)

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Opt. Lett. 5(3) 129-131 (1980)

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Opt. Lett. 22(7) 472-474 (1997)