High-Performance Fully Integrated Silicon Photonic Microwave Mixer Subsystems

We experimentally demonstrate two silicon photonic based mixer subsystems for applications in next gen fronthaul networks, defense, and communications for space, avionics, and vehicles. The mixer subsystems leverage emerging integrated microwave photonics technology through the AIM Photonics foundry. Our work demonstrates the potential for full integration of spectrally agile functions to enable seamless upconversion and downconversion over wide instantaneous bandwidths. Characterization of the frequency converting architectures focuses on analog metrics including gain, linearity, and noise figure. The first architecture represents the simplest architecture for practical frequency conversion on-chip using a single dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator and single photodetector. The second architecture, using dual parallel single-drive Mach–Zehnder modulators and balanced detection, represents the first silicon photonic downconverter with electrical-in, electrical-out frequency conversion fully on-chip; additionally, this architecture demonstrates the widest bandwidth reported among mixers of similar integration level on any material platform. Simulations using characterized parameters of components are performed and demonstrate accurate prediction of analog metrics for both mixer architectures. Using these simulations, we predict the performance of improved, fully integrated implementations of the characterized architectures using state-of-the-art platforms, demonstrating that high performance integrated microwave photonic frequency conversion is achievable.