Local Oscillator Signal Research Articles

A Millimeter-Wave Mixer-First Receiver With LO Waveform Shaping Using Varactors

A mixer-first receiver is proposed, which uses an overlap-suppressed local oscillator (LO) signal for the mixer switching. A sinusoidal LO wave can be shaped into a sharper waveform by adding a second-harmonic component to the fundamental one. This is readily achieved by integrating accumulation MOS varactors with LO buffers. The receiver is implemented in a 28-nm bulk CMOS and achieves an input 1-dB gain compression power in the range of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 12.6 to <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$-$</tex-math> </inline-formula> 14.3 dBm and a noise figure (NF) in the range of 8.4–9.6 dB at frequencies of 24–29 GHz while consuming 12.6-mW power.

Sagnac Loop Based Broadband Self-Interference Cancellation and Down-Conversion for Distributed Antenna Systems

Focusing on distributed antenna systems, we propose a photonics-assisted self-interference cancellation and down-conversion method based on a Sagnac loop structure. Two inversely cascaded modulators form a Sagnac loop through polarization multiplexing. To support in-band full duplex (IBFD) communication, a double parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) operated in a clockwise direction is used as a self-interference canceller (SIC) to achieve the phase conversion in the optical domain. Another MZM modulator working in the counterclockwise direction is used to modulate the local oscillation (LO) signal for frequency down-conversion. The adjustment of bias voltage is analyzed to optimize the conversion efficiency of the system. The power fading effect generated by fiber dispersion is compensated by a polarization-sensitive phase modulator (PS-PM). The experimental results show that the average cancellation depth is 56.4 dB at a single frequency in the operating frequency range of 6–22 GHz, and 29.1 dB and 23.7 dB for 20 MHz and 100 MHz bandwidth signals, respectively. In addition, the error vector map is improved from 16.50% to 6.26% after dispersion compensation. The self-interference cancellation, down-conversion and dispersion compensation are integrated in a microwave photonics link. Two cascaded modulators are equivalent to a parallel structure by the Sagnac loop, simultaneously ensuring high LO isolation and conversion efficiency. The proposed method provides an alternative for IBFD-based distributed antenna communication applications.

VHF crystal oscillator noise Part 2. Experimental and calculated data

Problem statement. The noise of radar local oscillator reference oscillation sources often prevails among the noise of the local oscillator signals. At long ranges, this leads to significant distortion of the results of processing weak reflected signals in radars. One of the ways to reduce the noise of the local oscillator signals is the use of VHF crystal oscillators with a low noise level. Goal. To obtain equations for the power spectral density of phase noise, as well as for random deviations of the oscillation phase of a model of a VHF crystal oscillator. Results. Equations for the power spectral density of phase noise, as well as for random deviations of the oscillation phase of a model of a VHF crystal oscillator are obtained. Practical significance. These theoretical and practical results obtained allow a more selective approach to the selection of parameters of high-frequency crystal oscillators for use as sources of local oscillator oscillations.

A triple band local oscillator coupling system based on a phase grating for five-meter Dome-A terahertz explorer telescope.

For heterodyne receivers, broadband and integrated local oscillator (LO) coupling schemes are crucial. In this paper, we present a novel terahertz broadband receiver system based on a one-pixel phase grating. We designed a phase grating that can simultaneously couple the LO signals at 690, 850, and 1300GHz to a superconducting hot-electron bolometer mixer at the incident angles of 25.7°, 20.6°, and 13.3°, respectively. At these three frequencies, the measured diffraction efficiencies of the phase grating are as high as 70%, 73%, and 65%, and the total power coupling efficiencies of the LO coupling system are 22%, 23%, and 23%, in good agreement with the simulated results. This efficient and highly integrated multiband receiver system has potential applications in the proposed Five-meter Dome-A Terahertz Explorer telescope.

Local oscillator port embedded field enhancement resonator for Rydberg atomic heterodyne technique

Rydberg atom-based sensors using the atomic heterodyne technique demonstrate prominent performance on sensing sensitivity and thus have significant potential for radar, electronic reconnaissance, and communication applications. Here, we propose a local oscillator (LO) embedded field enhancement resonator to improve the sensitivity and integration of Rydberg atomic heterodyne sensors. In this approach, a vapor cell filled with cesium atoms is placed into the resonance structure for electric (E) field measurements. By integrating parallel-plate waveguide (PPWG) antennas and the resonator, the LO signal can be directly guided to the resonator using coaxial cable instead of the use of external antennas radiating through free space, allowing for a more flexible and practical Rydberg atom-based heterodyne technique. Based on the off-resonant Rydberg atomic heterodyne approach, for a radio frequency (RF) signal at 638 MHz, it is found that the sensitivity is 43 μV/cmsqrt{text{Hz}} in the absence of the resonator, while in the presence of our resonator, the sensitivity is down to 854.36 nV/cmsqrt{text{Hz}}, indicating 50 times or 34 dB improvement capacity of the proposed resonator. This type of enhancement resonator is expected to benefit Rydberg atomic heterodyne applications in practical environments.

Photonic-Enabled Image Rejection Mixer with Simultaneous Wideband Self-Interference Cancellation for In-Band Full-Duplex System

In this paper, a photonic-enabled image rejection mixer (IRM) that features an ultrawideband self-interference cancellation (SIC) function and a compact configuration is proposed. The parameter tuning of SIC is realized in an optical domain, which avoids the use of electrically tuned devices with limited bandwidth and precision, so that high-precision parameter matching can be realized in the optical domain to realize deep and ultrawideband SIC. The key point of image rejection (IR) is to construct a pair of orthogonal local oscillation (LO) signals through DC-bias-induced phase shift. This not only avoids a high-frequency electrical 90-degree hybrid coupler (HC) applied in the traditional Hartley structure, but also compensates the phase deviation in the electrical intermediate frequency (IF) 90-degree HC flexibly, ensuring wideband and deep IR operation. The simulation results show that the proposed IRM can achieve ultrawideband SIC and IR with the simultaneous high-efficiency recovery of useful signals. They also verify that the scheme has good resistance to strong interference, and can cope with the phase imbalance of the IF 90-degree electrical HC, ensuring the good performance of the system, which has a wide application prospect in various in-band full-duplex (IBFD) systems.

Coherent manipulation of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond via frequency multiplication

Nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond as ideally individual spin quantum systems can be coherently manipulated by microwave fields. Compared to the traditional method using the IQ (In-phase/Quadrature) mixer with a local oscillator and intermediate-frequency (IF) signals, we report an effective and technically simple method to generate the required microwave field by frequency multiplication and realize coherent manipulation of the NV center’s electron spin. After frequency multiplication, the IF signal can be directly converted to the high-frequency microwave field with adjustable pulse width, frequency, phase, and amplitude. A series of spin dynamics applications such as Rabi oscillation, free induction decay, and spin-locking are executed, which verified its performance and feasibility. Frequency multiplication can overcome the problem of clock synchronization between the local oscillator and IF signal and greatly reduce the complexity of the experimental system. The method can be easily used to realize a more complex quantum control sequence such as dynamic decoupling and extended to a wide range of spin-based quantum information applications in the future.

Remote mmW photonic local oscillator delivery for uplink down-conversion in DML-based optical hybrid C-RAN fronthaul

In this work, we propose and demonstrate the remote delivery of a photonically generated local oscillator (LO) signal for uplink down-conversion in photonically generated millimeter-wave (mmW) signals over duplex centralized radio access network fronthaul. The technique, based on carrier-suppressed external modulation in a single Mach–Zehnder modulator, is employed for generating the mmW signals, which are distributed over hybrid optical links composed of fiber and free-space optics (FSO) prior to the radio wireless link at 42 GHz, and also for the uplink (UL) LO generation enabling the 38 GHz UL signal down-conversion. A 5G new radio (NR) quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) and 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signal transmission is successfully demonstrated using low-frequency directly modulated lasers for both the downlink and the UL mmW transmission, and thus a low-cost and simple intermediate frequency over fiber and FSO UL deployment are presented. The lowest achieved error vector magnitudes with the 5G NR signals at 100 MHz bandwidth in the proposed mmW UL schemes, including 10 km of optical fiber and a 1.1 m long FSO link, are 5.8% and 6% for QPSK and 64-QAM, respectively.

Photonic-assisted generation of joint radar and communication signals with immunity to power fading

In this paper, a photonic-assisted generation of joint radar and communication signals with immunity to power fading is proposed based on a dual-polarization binary phase-shift keying (DP-BPSK) modulator. Two dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulators (DD-MZMs) named DD-MZM1 and DD-MZM2 are respectively located on the upper and lower arms of the DP-BPSK modulator. In DD-MZM1, an intermediate frequency communication signal is single sideband (SSB) modulated on the optical carrier. At one radio frequency (RF) port of DD-MZM2, a split parabolic waveform signal is phase-modulated on the optical carrier to generate SSB radar signal, and the other RF port is used to phase modulate local oscillator signal. By simply adjusting a polarization controller, radar or communication signal can be respectively generated at different frequency band after balanced photoelectric conversion. Experiments are carried out to verify the feasibility of the scheme. Radar signals with bandwidths of 500 MHz and 1 GHz are generated. The error vector magnitude of the generated 16-QAM signal with a baud rate of 100 Msym/s is 5.42%. The frequency tunability and the immunity to power fading are also verified. The proposed method has a simple and compact structure and meets the requirement of long-distance transmission, which has potential applications in emerging intelligence scenarios.

A low jitter fractional PLL with offset current charge pump

A low jitter fractional phase-locked loop (PLL) with high quality local oscillator signal for RF transceiver is presented in this paper. Compared with the traditional structure, not only the gated-offset linearization technique is adopted to improve the linearity of the charge pump (CP), but also the sampling filter is used to further reduce the output ripple of the charge pump. The voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) adopts the tail resistor and second harmonic filter structure to reduce its noise level. The circuit is implemented in a standard 28 nm CMOS process, and the reference clock frequency is 95.76 MHz, which is provided by an integrated crystal oscillator. The chip test results show that the locking frequency range of the PLL is located between 2.42GHz and 3.27 GHz. The phase noise measured at the center frequency of 3.27 GHz at 1 MHz frequency offset is −122 dBc/Hz, RMS jitter is 286 fs, the chip area is 0.78 mm2, and the core current consumption of the PLL is 67.2 mA.

Broadband photonic-assisted microwave receiver with high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection.

A broadband photonic-assisted microwave receiver with high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. At the input of the microwave receiver, a microwave signal is injected into an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), which functions as a local oscillator (LO) to generate a low-phase noise LO signal as well as a photonic-assisted mixer to down-convert the input microwave signal to the intermediate frequency (IF). A microwave photonic filter (MPF), realized by the joint operation of a phase modulator (PM) in the OEO and a Fabry-Perot laser diode (FPLD), is used as a narrowband filter to select the IF signal. Thanks to the wide bandwidth of the photonic-assisted mixer and the wide frequency tunable range of the OEO, the microwave receiver can support broadband operation. The high cross-channel interference suppression and image rejection are enabled by the narrowband MPF. The system is evaluated experimentally. A broadband operation from 11.27 to 20.85 GHz is demonstrated. For a multi-channel microwave signal with a channel spacing of 2 GHz, a cross-channel interference suppression ratio of 21.95 dB and an image rejection ratio of 21.51 dB are realized. The spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) of the receiver is also measured to be 98.25 dB·Hz2/3. The performance of the microwave receiver for multi-channel communications is also experimentally evaluated.

Ultrawideband RF-IQ Modulator Using Segmented Nonlinearly Scaled RF-DACs and Nonoverlapping LO Signals

A wideband Cartesian in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) modulator based on dual 10 b RF-digital-to-analog converters (DACs) is presented. Nonoverlapping local oscillator (LO) signals and a segmented nonlinear scaling with scaled unit cells contribute to a high linearity and allow for a low-complexity digital predistortion (DPD). Unit-cell flip-flops (FFs) and a balanced clock distribution enable a high sample rate with little skew. Out-of-band emissions are reduced through drive-slope control of the data-switch inputs. The modulator, implemented in the 22-nm fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FDSOI) CMOS, operates between 20 and 26 GHz with a peak sample rate of 11 GS/s. It has been used to demonstrate the transmission of a 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) single-carrier (SC) signal at 13.2 Gb/s, a 256-QAM SC signal at 7.33 Gb/s, and an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) signal comprising four aggregated 400-MHz 64-QAM channels with an error vector magnitude (EVM) of 6.43%. These results demonstrate the potential of the proposed modulator for the realization of ultrawideband transmitters in high-performance millimeter-wave (mmW) systems.

Photonics-Assisted Analog Wideband Self-Interference Cancellation for In-Band Full-Duplex MIMO Systems With Adaptive Digital Amplitude and Delay Pre-Matching

A photonics-assisted analog wideband RF self-interference (SI) cancellation and frequency downconversion approach for in-band full-duplex (IBFD) multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems with adaptive digital amplitude and delay pre-matching is proposed based on a dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM). In each MIMO receiving antenna, the received signal, including different SI signals from different transmitting antennas and the signal of interest, is applied to one arm of the upper dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (DD-MZM) of the DP-MZM, the reference signal is applied to the other arm of the upper DD-MZM, and the local oscillator signal is applied to one arm of the lower DD-MZM. The SI signals are canceled in the optical domain in the upper DD-MZM and the frequency downconversion is achieved after photodetection. To cancel the SI signals, the analog reference signal is constructed in the digital domain, while the amplitude and delay of the constructed reference are adjusted digitally by upsampling with high accuracy. Experiments are performed when two different SI signals are employed. The genetic algorithm or least squares algorithm is combined with segmented search respectively for the SI signal reconstruction and amplitude and delay pre-matching. A cancellation depth of around 20 dB is achieved for the 1-Gbaud 16 quadrature-amplitude modulation orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signal.

Fiber-terahertz-fiber bridge system in the 355-GHz band using a simple optical frequency comb and a photonics-enabled receiver.

This Letter demonstrates a high-speed fiber-terahertz-fiber system in the 355-GHz band using stable optical frequency comb generation and a photonics-enabled receiver. At the transmitter, a single dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator is employed to generate a frequency comb by driving the modulator under an optimal condition. At the antenna site, a photonics-enabled receiver consisting of an optical local oscillator signal generator, a frequency doubler, and an electronic mixer is used to downconvert the terahertz-wave signal to the microwave band. Simple intensity modulation and a direct detection method are used for transmitting the downconverted signal to the receiver over the second fiber link. To demonstrate the proof of concept, we transmitted a 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing signal over a system consisting of two radio-over-fiber links and a 4 m wireless link in the 355-GHz band and achieved a line rate of 60 Gb/s. We also successfully transmitted a 16-QAM subcarrier multiplexing single-carrier signal over the system and achieved a capacity of 50 Gb/s. The proposed system can facilitate the deployment of ultra-dense small cells in high-frequency bands in beyond-5G networks.

Design of a 240 GHz on-chip dual-polarization receiver for SIS mixer arrays

We report the design of a compact dual-polarization on-chip superconductor–insulator–superconductor receiver for array applications. The planar-circuit receiver chip is comprised of the entire radio frequency (RF) signal processing chain with three main circuit components alongside some auxiliary circuits: (1) a polarization splitting 4-probe orthomode transducer (OMT) that couples the RF and local oscillator signal from free space to the chip via a drilled feedhorn; (2) two hybrids that recombine the power of each polarization from the two sets of orthogonal OMT probes; and (3) twin-junction Nb/AlOx/Nb mixers that downconvert the recombined signals to the intermediate frequency. We ensure that the four side walls of each pixel are free from obscuration, using only the top and bottom of the pixel for various connections. Consequently, the design is extendable to a large format array. In this paper, we present the detailed design of the on-chip receiver, including extensive heterodyne simulations and its potential extension into a large format array.

Broadband Microwave Photonic Mixer with Flexibly Tunable Phase Shift and Supporting Dispersion-Induced Power-Fading-Free Fiber Transmission

A broadband microwave photonic mixer with tunable phase shift and supporting dispersion-induced power-fading-free fiber transmission is proposed and demonstrated based on a dual-polarization dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM). In this scheme, the intermediate-frequency (IF)/radiofrequency (RF) signal and the local oscillation (LO) signal are applied to the four sub-MZMs biased at their minimum transmission points via a power splitter and a 90° hybrid coupler, respectively. Through mutual beating between the IF/RF and the LO modulation sidebands in a high-speed photodetector at the remote site, high-efficiency frequency conversion is achieved. The dispersion-induced power fading over long-distance fiber transmission is eliminated through setting the biased-induced phase difference between the parent-MZMs in the two sub-DPMZMs of the DP-DPMZM to be π/2. In addition, the phase shift of the frequency-converted signal can be continuously tuned over 360° through synchronously adjusting the bias voltages of the parent-MZMs in the two sub-DPMZMs. The proposed scheme is experimentally demonstrated, where a microwave photonic mixer with a 6-dB operation bandwidth of 40 GHz and supporting dispersion-induced power-fading-free transmission over 20 km SMF is realized. Meanwhile, a continuously tunable phase shift over 360° in the frequency range of 0.1 GHz to 29.9 GHz is achieved, where the power variation during phase tuning is smaller than 4 dB.

A 260–300-GHz Mixer-First IQ Receiver With Fundamental LO Driver in 130-nm SiGe Process

We report a 280-GHz mixer-first quadrature receiver in 130-nm SiGe that achieves a peak gain of 25 dB, an IF bandwidth of 30-GHz, and a minimum single-sideband (SSB) noise figure (NF) of 18.2 dB. The receiver is comprised of two Gilbert-cell mixers with swapped RF and local oscillation (LO) ports that downconvert the RF signal at 260–299 GHz to I/Q IF signals at 1–40 GHz by using a pseudo-differential LO driver at 259 GHz. In each channel, a wideband IF amplifier was used for an aimed conversion gain of higher than 20 dB. Combined with a differentia hybrid coupler, an integrated 259-GHz driving amplifier (DA) was integrated to generate the quadrature LO signals for I and Q channels. The measured amplitude and phase imbalance between the I and Q channels are around 4 dB and 4°, respectively. The fabricated chip occupies a whole area of 1.12 mm2 and consumes a dc power of 384 mW.

Tunable High-Purity Microwave Frequency Combs Generation Based on Active Mode-Locking OEO

A novel approach to generate tunable high-purity microwave frequency combs (MFCs) based on active mode-locking optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed method, one cavity mode of the OEO is injection-locked by a local oscillator (LO) signal resulting in single-mode oscillation. Under the assistance of an additional radio frequency signal, the MFCs generation is realized by loss modulation the single-mode oscillation. A key significance of our scheme is that no tunable filter is needed in OEO cavity. By altering the frequency of the LO signal, the MFCs center frequency can be flexibly precisely tuned over a bandwidth of 1.6 GHz. Furthermore, the high suppression of the supermode noise is obtained due to the injection locking of the OEO decreasing the required loop gain. The experimental results show that the generated MFCs maintain a large supermode noise suppression ratio over the entire tuning range.

A low power 0.5–3.0 GHz passive mixer based wideband receiver front-end

A 0.5–3.0 GHz passive mixer based receiver front-end (RFE) is presented. This RFE consists of low noise amplifier, passive mixer, transimpedance amplifier (TIA) and local oscillator signal generator. In order to reduce the power consumption and noise figure, an optimized LNA is proposed in this paper. To further reduce the power consumption, topology of TIA is simplified. The chip is fabricated with SMIC 65 nm technology. At the frequency band of 0.5–3.0 GHz, it achieves a gain of 34 dB and NF of 3.2 dB. The power consumption is 3.8–5.0 mW with core area of 0.06 mm2.

Generation of a Fundamental/Doubled Frequency Phase-Coded Microwave Signal Based on Polarization Multiplexed Technology

Microwave photonic phase-shifting technology can be used to generate high-frequency, broadband, and tunable phase-coded microwave signals, which are helpful in solving the contradiction between the detection range and the range resolution in radar systems. A method for generating a reconfigurable carrier phase-coded signal of a fundamental or doubled carrier frequency, based on polarization multiplexed technology, is proposed and verified by the experiments in this paper. A dual-parallel dual-polarization Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM) and a polarization-dependent phase modulator (PD-PM) were used to load the carrier and the phase-shifting signal, respectively. By reasonably configuring the state of the RF switch and the bias voltages of the sub-DPMZM, the fundamental or doubled carrier frequency can be obtained through photoelectric conversion. The reconfigurable carrier frequency gives the system a wider work bandwidth range and can effectively reduce the frequency requirement for local oscillator (LO) signals. By adjusting the driving voltage, the broadband microwave signal can be phase-shifted within the range of 360°, and when the phase-shifted control signal is a multilevel amplitude signal, it can generate binary, quaternary, or other high-order phase-coded signals, which have high reconfigurable performance and potential application value in multifunctional radar systems. In addition, the scheme has wideband tunability, since no optical filter is involved. The proposed scheme was theoretically analyzed and experimentally verified. Binary, quaternary, and octal phase-coded signals, with fundamental and doubled frequencies centered at 8 GHz and 16 GHz, were successfully generated.