Silicon Photonics Enabled Hyper-Wideband RF Receiver With >85% Instantaneous Bandwidth

Abstract

We demonstrate the first-ever silicon photonics enabled hyper-wideband RF spread-spectrum link. A hybrid III/V-silicon photonic mode-locked laser encoded with a four-channel silicon photonic phase encoder is used to generate optical carriers that coherently demodulate a received RF signal spanning an instantaneous bandwidth greater than 85% of the center frequency (12/14 GHz). This allows low-speed (<3 GHz) electronics to be used in place of the traditional costly and high-power wide-bandwidth electronics used in an all-electronic hyper-wideband link. In addition, integrated highly tunable optical notch filters are successfully used to reject unwanted narrowband interference, with rejection ratio and tunability that surpass conventional wireless technology.