Extending frequency and bandwidth through the use of agile, high dynamic range photonic converters

RF photonic techniques can be used to extend operating frequencies and bandwidth of mission communications and sensing systems. Photonic links inherently cover wide frequency bandwidths and optical modulators and detectors have been demonstrated that operate up to 100 GHz. This paper presents a photonic method for tunable high frequency carrier generation and wideband tunable RF frequency conversion. Photonic down-conversion measurements are presented with +24 dBm OIP3 and positive gain across RF input signals from 5 to 20 GHz. Additionally, measurements of undesired higher order mixing spurious products were more than 30 dB lower than those of typical RF mixers. Coupling wide-band optical components with a reconfigurable RF payload provides unprecedented agility and multi-mission utility for remote sensing, communications and SAR radar missions.

[1]  M. Guy,et al.  Ultra-narrowband fiber Bragg gratings for laser linewidth reduction and RF filtering , 2010, LASE.

[2]  James H. Menders,et al.  20 Hz linewidth mm-wave generation by optical sideband filtering , 2000 .

[3]  X. Steve Yao.  RF Photonic Technology in Optical Fiber Links: Opto-electronic oscillators , 2002 .

[4]  Richard DeSalvo,et al.  Balanced coherent heterodyne detection with double sideband suppressed carrier modulation for high performance microwave photonic links , 2009, 2009 IEEE Avionics, Fiber-Optics and Phototonics Technology Conference.

[5]  R. DeSalvo,et al.  A novel technique for double sideband suppressed carrier modulation of optical fields , 1995, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[6]  Edward Miles,et al.  20-Hz linewidth millimeter-wave generation by optical sideband filtering , 2000, SPIE Optics + Photonics.

[7]  Richard DeSalvo,et al.  System implementation of coherent analog optical links , 2010, 2010 Avionics, Fiber-Optics and Photonics Technology Conference.

[8]  Stephen A. Pappert,et al.  RF Photonic Technology in Optical Fiber Links: Photonic link techniques for microwave frequency conversion , 2002 .

[9]  A. Karim,et al.  High Dynamic Range Microwave Photonic Links for RF Signal Transport and RF-IF Conversion , 2008, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[10]  T R Clark,et al.  A Phase-Modulation I/Q-Demodulation Microwave-to-Digital Photonic Link , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques.

[11]  Alan W. Mast.  Reconfigurable Software Defined Payload architecture that reduces cost and risk for various missions , 2011, 2011 Aerospace Conference.

[12]  Kun-Yii Tu,et al.  Silicon RF-Photonic Filter and Down-Converter , 2010, Journal of Lightwave Technology.