Incoherent Frequency 12-tupling Microwave Signal Generation Scheme Based on Cascade Modulators

Abstract

Frequency-multiplication technology based on microwave photonic principles can be used to generate microwave and millimeter wave signals with a wide frequency tuning range. However, the existing cascaded external modulation frequency-tupling scheme needs to ensure the phase coherence of the modulated Radio Frequency (RF) signal, while the phase modulation directly limits the frequency tuning range of the external modulation frequency multiplication. In this paper, a novel approach for generating an incoherent frequency 12-tupling signal with cascade modulation is proposed. The structure of cascaded dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators can generate a frequency 12-tupling signal. The proposed structure uses no filter or phase control of the RF driving signal. Microwave photonic frequency-tupling was realized under incoherent conditions. Software simulations and experiments validated the proposed structure and proved that it can generate frequency 12-tupling microwave signals under incoherent conditions. Both the frequency range and reliability of the frequency-tupling system has been improved by the proposed structure.