Optical millimeter wave signal generation with frequency 16-tupling using cascaded MZMs and no optical filtering for radio over fiber system

Abstract

Abstract Background An optical Millimeter Wave (MM-Wave) generation with high frequency multiplication factor is very attractive solution to avoid the use of high frequency local oscillators at the central station. Methods In this paper, a frequency 16 tupling technique is demonstrated with the use of four cascaded MZMs. With the proper adjustment of DC bias of the Mach-Zehnder Modulators (MZM), amplitude and phases of the RF Local oscillators, MM-Wave with a frequency 16 times the input RF LO is demonstrated. Results The cascaded structure has resulted very low modulation index of 2.827 and 54 dB and 42 dB of OSSR and RFSSR respectively. Analysis of both optical and RF sided band suppression ratios under non-ideal cases are also simulated and presented. Further, 10 Gbps NRZ data transmission performance over 50 km Single Mode Fiber (SMF) is also evaluated. Conclusions The proposed structure can tolerate up to few degrees of non-ideal parameter variation and is very simple to realize.

Keywords

• Optical millimeter-wave
• Mach-Zehnder Modulator
• Radio over Fiber
• Laser Diode