| Abstract: | An optical phase shifter includes an optical waveguide, a plurality of
partial phase shifting elements arranged sequentially, and control
circuitry electrically coupled to the partial phase shifting elements.
The control circuitry is adapted to provide an activating signal to each
of the N partial phase shifting elements such that the signal is delayed
by a clock cycle between adjacent partial phase shifting elements in the
sequence. The transit time for a guided optical pulse train between the
input edges of consecutive partial phase shifting elements in the
sequence is arranged to be equal to a clock cycle, thereby enabling
pipelined processing of the optical pulses. |