A novel analog-to-digital conversion architecture using electron waveguides

Abstract

We have demonstrated a novel analog-to-digital (A:D) conversion architecture based on the quantized conductance of electron waveguides. In our scheme, a dual electron waveguide (DWG) device implements a binary quantizer and encoder for one significant bit. The conductance values of the on and off states are 2e/sup 2//h and zero, respectively. By cascading multiple DWG devices, higher order bits can be attained. In this paper, we demonstrate the first significant bit and the second significant bit for a 2-bit analog-to-digital converter using a DWG device fabricated in an AlGaAs/GaAs modulation-doped heterostructure.<>