This work was funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA-0277) and the Office of Navy Research (N0-2595 of the Electronic Warfare Program). 'This device is a key stepping stone for next-generation data processing hardware.' 'We found a way to seamlessly bridge the gap that exists between these two worlds, analog and digital,' Sorger said.

Sorger, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at GW, and his colleagues have created a digital-to-analog converter that does not require the signal to be converted in the electrical domain, thus showing the potential to satisfy the demand for high data-processing capabilities while acting on optical data, interfacing to digital systems, and performing in a compact footprint, with both short signal delay and low power consumption. Typical applications include decoding rear-view camera analog video and audio-video receivers. Using a silicon photonic chip platform, Volker J. Analog Devices, an industry leader in the analog video product field, offers a range of video decoders that provide high quality conversion of analog video in standard (SD) and high definition (HD) resolutions to digital video data in MIPI or TTL formats.

Current optical networks, through which most of the world's data is transmitted, as well as many sensors, require a digital-to-analog conversion, which links digital systems synergistically to analog components.

Digital to analog video converter chip