Microwave photonic phase shifter based on birefringence effects in a semiconductor optical amplifier

Abstract

A continuously tunable microwave photonic (MWP) phase shifter based on birefringence effects in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) is presented and the theoretical fundamentals of the design are explained. This proposed device provides a high efficiency phase-shift tuning range beyond 2π rad by controlling the SOA launch power. A prototype of the MWP phase shifter with a frequency of 10 GHz and 2π rad tuning range is experimentally demonstrated.

Photonic generation of microwave signal with capability of arbitrary phase shifting using XPM in HNLF

“…To verify the principle the proposed microwave phase shifting, Optisystem 7.0 and matlab are used as our simulation platform. In our simulation, the dual wavelength spaced at 0.2 nm with orthogonal polarization probe light is generated by two independent laser sources, but in practice we can use carrier suppressed modulation scheme to obtain two phase-correlated carriers [6].The length, attenuation parameter and the nonlinear coefficient γ of HNLF are 2 km, 0.2 dB/km and 10.02 (W.Km) -1 , respectively. Firstly, we investigate the relationship of the phase shift variation with the optical pump power.…”

“…Microwave signals with arbitrarily tunable phases are critically important for many microwave applications, such as microwave phase shifter (MPS), phase-array antennas and microwave filters [1]. Until now, several photonic approaches have been demonstrated to realize MPS [2][3][4][5][6]. However, it suffers from a narrow range of MPS tuning, severe power fluctuation, and fixed frequency of tunable MPS operation, which limits its practical applications.…”

Photonic High-Bandwidth RF Splitter With Arbitrary Amplitude and Phase Offset

“…Alternatively, MWP techniques offer simple approaches to realize such broadband RF splitter functionality with easy tuning and potentials of full-system integration. Previous studies have identified MWP approaches for introducing arbitrary RF phase shift over a wide instantaneous bandwidth, using various optical devices, such as an optical spectrum processor [6], gratings [7], [8], semiconductor optical amplifiers [9], [10], waveguide ring resonators [11], [12], polarization modulators [13], [14], and fiber with stimulated Brillouin scattering [15], [16]. The above approaches could provide two outputs using duplication of their circuits, and may not provide independent controls of RF amplitude and phase.…”