Performances of a Photonic Microwave Mixer Based on Cross-Gain Modulation in a Semiconductor Optical Amplifier

Abstract

International audienceThe key goal of this paper consists of a theoretical and an experimental performances analysis of a photonic microwave mixer used as a signal down- and up-converter based on cross-gain modulation in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA). We give, by a small-signal analysis approach, the analytical equations of the output optical power carrying the down- and up-converted signal. Simplified formulas are developed, relating the mixing conversion gain to the modeling parameters of the SOA. The efficiency of the photonic microwave mixer based on an SOA has been evaluated in terms of mixing conversion gain, third-order input intercept point, and electrical phase noise. In addition, a subcarrier modulated by a QPSK, a 16 quadratic-amplitude modulation (QAM) and a 64 QAM at a data rate of 270 ksymb/s has been down converted from 1 GHz to 100 MHz with a low error vector magnitude of about 3.5%

Satellite Payloads Pay Off

“…Optical microwave mixing can also be realized based on nonlinear effects in nonlinear media, such as cross-phase modulation (XPM) and cross-gain modulation (XGM) effects in a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) [42], [43]. A particular advantage associated with this method is its ability to allow hybrid or monolithic integration with other active or passive devices, which can reduce system cost considerably.…”

Performance Evaluation of the Optical AND Gate at 200 Gbps

“…In conjunction with the growth of advanced optical amplifiers, for instance semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based numerous logic operations realization are feasible. The semiconductor optical amplifier is a multifunctional device tenders numerous benefits, as it allow performing all optical functions based on its nonlinearities, cost-effectiveness, and low power consumption, compact size, flat-gain [12][13][14][15][16]. Flat-gain hybrid optical amplifier has been proposed using SOA with Er-Yb co-doped waveguide amplifier employed as booster for hybrid distributed Raman and Erbium doped fiber amplifier, revealed gain deviation diminished from 2.01 to around 1.15 dB altogether with acceptable bit error rate performance [17].…”

Idler-free microwave photonic mixer integrated with a widely tunable and highly selective microwave photonic filter

“…Various microwave photonic mixer structures have been proposed, including cascaded electro-optic modulators (EOMs) [3], parallel EOMs [4][5][6], semiconductor optical amplifiers [7][8][9], and harmonic mixers based on optical frequency combs [10]. All of these schemes suffer from the problem of coexisting undesired idler frequencies unless a photodiode with low bandwidth is utilized, which also limits the systems to be used only as downconverters.…”