Photonic generation and theoretical investigation of phase noise in quadrupling and 12-tupling millimeter wave Signal using optical self-heterodyne system

Abstract

In this paper, photonic generation of quadrupling and twelve-tupling millimeter wave signal using single radio frequency (RF) signal is proposed. The purity of generated signal is observed by using mathematical approach which is further verified on simulation platform. Cascaded DP-DDMZM configuration is used in the proposed optical self- heterodyne system to generate millimeter-wave signals four times and twelve times the input RF source frequency. Selective sideband generation and carrier suppression techniques are utilized to generate the desired RF signal at the photodetector. Furthermore, the phase noise analysis of the generated millimeter wave signal is theoretically investigated. Expression of power spectral density for 40 GHz and 120 GHz millimeter signal is mathematically calculated to observe how the spectral quality is affected by the random phase fluctuations of input RF and optical sources. Phase noise of the millimeter-wave signal for different optical path length difference at various offset frequency is compared and discussed. System parameters such as noise figure, insertion loss, and spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) are calculated for generated millimeter-waves/RF signals. The present proposed system uses a single RF source to generate quadrupling and 12-tupling millimeter wave and find its application in WDM systems, optical signal processing, radar system, etc. The results can be used to build an opto-electronic oscillator for a high-frequency microwave photonic communication system.