NEW ASPECTS IN ELECTROOPTIC SAMPLING

Nowadays, electro-optic sampling based on ultra-short optical pulses b ecomes more and more attractive for microwave engineers developing mon olithic microwave integrated circuits. Moreover, due to growing clock rates this test technique is also of interest for the function and fai lure analysis of high-speed digital circuits. In the last years a lot of work has been done to fit this technique to todays' requirements an d to make it usable for circuits designers. Therefore, in this paper a n overview of the state of the art and of current topics in electro-op tic sampling is given. Two examples, one from analog circuits, the hig h-frequency signal injection to the device under test, and one from di gital circuits, the improvement of spatial resolution, will be discuss ed in detail.