Flexible mm-Wave Frequency and High-Speed Arbitrary IQ Signal Synthesis by a Photonic System on Chip

Abstract

Photonics-assisted millimeter-wave bands and terahertz signal generation offer significant advantages over traditional electronic methods by leveraging the inherent benefits of optical components, including broad bandwidth, low power consumption, and minimal insertion loss. This work utilizes a silicon photonic chip in conjunction with a reconfigurable optical frequency comb to demonstrate the synthesis of signals in the millimeter-wave range. The implemented photonic system performs on-chip filtering and modulation, producing high-bandwidth single frequency, multi-frequency, and vector signals suitable for arbitrary IQ signal construction. These results highlight the flexible and reconfigurable capabilities of the proposed approach, providing new perspectives for applications in radio-over-fiber systems and beyond.

Figures (8)

• Figure 1: Schematic comparison between all-electronics MMW/THz-wave signal generation and Photonics-assisted approach.
• Figure 2: Schematic diagram of high-bandwidth signal generation using an integrated photonic system. (a). Experimental schematics of three compared approaches. (b). System architecture of the silicon photonic chip, with a micrograph of the reconfigurable MRRs. (c). schematics of the on-chip reconfigurable MRR and corresponding measured spectral response.
• Figure 3: Schematic of single frequency signal generation. (a). Experiment setup and optical link. PC, Polarization Controller; EA, Electrical Amplifier; PM, Phase Modulator; WSS, Wavelength Selective Switch; EDFA, Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier; ATT, Attenuator; PBS, Polarization Beam Splitter; DSO: Digital Storage Oscilloscope. (b). Measured optical spectra of the (i) multi-wavelength sources, (ii) after MRR filtering and (iii) generated high bandwidth single sideband signal, with corresponding measurement points annotated in (a). (c). Schematic diagram of internal structure of the OMA.
• Figure 4: Experimental results of single frequency signal generation. (a). Measured BER versus optical power into PD curve for modulated 16 Gbaud BPSK and 16 Gbaud 4ASK signals. Insert is corresponding constellation diagrams. (b) Electrical spectrum of the captured 16 Gbaud BPSK modulated signal. (c) BER performance versus modulated signals' symbol rate. (d) BER versus generated signals' frequency.
• Figure 5: Schematic of multi-frequency signal generation. (a). Experiment setup and optical link. The inset shows a photograph of the packaged photonic integrated chip deployed in the experimental system: the 128-channel programmable voltage source is positioned on the left, and the arbitrary waveform generator is located at the top. (b). Measured optical spectra of the (i) multi-wavelength sources, (ii) after MRR filtering, (iii) combined modulated signal and (iv) generated high bandwidth multi-frequency single sideband signals, with corresponding measurement points annotated in (a).