Silicon Photonics Radio-Over-Fiber Transmitter Using GeSi EAMs for Frequency Up-Conversion

Abstract

In this work we present a silicon photonics Radioover-Fiber transmitter with microwave photonic up-conversion capability. The circuit consists of a pair of parallel GeSi EAMs in a MZI structure. We show that the up-converter/transmitter can up-convert 64-QAM data on a 1.5 GHz IF to any output carrier frequency in the 7-26 GHz range. This interval is only limited by measurement equipment, as we demonstrate that the EAM has a 3 dB bandwidth exceeding 65 GHz. Furthermore, the linearity of the up-converter/transmitter is characterized and a SFDR larger than 82 dB•Hz 2/3 is demonstrated. Using this system we transmit up to 1.3 Gb/s 64-QAM data over 2 km of SMF with a received 5.4 % rms EVM.

Millimeter-wave generation using hybrid silicon photonics

“…Instead of using the carrier-depletion effect, one can also employ the QCSE or FKE in SiGe or III-V/Si heterostructures for the development of SOI-based EAMs. As explained earlier, while these modulators have a strong nonlinear response, they not only require lower driving voltages and attain higher bandwidths than the carrier-depletion type of modulator but they also typically have a smaller chip footprint [268,289]. Bandwidths of up to 67 GHz for III-V/Si hybrid EAMs and exceeding 65 GHz for SiGe EAMs have been reported [152,268].…”

“…While these devices can be fully integrated into SOI platforms, one can also rely on EAMs in InP or SiGe through heterogeneous integration, as mentioned earlier. Indeed, these EAMs benefit from the strong electro-absorption effect in these materials, either arising from the quantum-confined Stark-effect (QCSE) in MQWs or the FKE [152,267,268]. This change in absorption can function as direct intensity modulation, thus making the realization of very compact modulators possible [269,270] without the need for a long phase modulator in an MZI or ring configuration.…”

Integrated photonics for space applications

“…Alenia Space)一直以来在卫星通信间的微波收发机方 面开展研究 [37] . 比利时根特大学Van Gasse等研究 者 [39] , 在欧空局ARTES项目"电光频率转换器"(Electro-Photonic Frequency Converter)支持下, 基于IMEC 的先进硅光工艺线对片上集成的微波上下变频、微波 发射机/接收机 [40,41] 开展广泛研究, 取得了较好成果. 图 5 (网络版彩图) (a) 微波上变频的系统框图 [40] ; (b) 微波 接收机的封装芯片图 [41] Figure 5 (Color online) (a) Schematic diagram of the RF photonic upconversion [40]; (b) image of the packaged RF photonic receiver [41].…”

Real-Time 100-GS/s Sigma-Delta Modulator for All-Digital Radio-Over-Fiber Transmission

“…SDoF has not been reported for frequency bands beyond 24 GHz due to the limited sampling rate of the state-of-the-art SDMs as summarized in [4], [8], [9]. Therefore, when a simple RRU is required, prior works mainly rely on the ARoF, where the baseband or intermediate frequency (IF) signal is translated to the carrier frequency by either analog [10], [11] or optical up-conversion [12], [13]. However, the main drawbacks of these approaches are the sensitivity to nonlinearities in the electrical-to-optical (E/O) conversion [14] and the requirement of additional components for frequency up-conversion.…”