High-efficiency optical mixers: Principle, design, and implications for signal processing

Parametric mixers provide unique set of advantages that cannot be easily matched by any electronic technology. Specifically, parametric processor inherent speed, coherent nature and low dissipation are of particular interest in both analog and digital architectures. When combined with rate-matched electronics backplane, coherent parametric preprocessors are likely to lead to high performance ADC and spectral analyzers that exceed performance of presently existing devices.