Hybrid-integrated optoelectronic oscillator with wideband tunability and low phase noise

Abstract

With the development of the economy and the society, spectrum resources of higher frequencies are becoming increasingly scarce. Beneficial from the photonic technology, optoelectronic oscillators (OEOs) have the advantages in generating microwave signal with high center frequency and low phase noise. However, applications of OEO systems are limited by its bulky size. In this work, a hybrid integrated OEO is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. A high integration level is achieved by assembling all the optical and electrical chips. A compact fiber ring and a YIG filter are also well packaged. At the oscillation frequency of 10 GHz, phase noise of the proposed OEO is -115.83 dBc/Hz@10 kHz. Wideband frequency tuning from 3 GHz to 18 GHz is also realized, the phase noise is better than -110 dBc/Hz @10 kHz at the entire tuning range. This work shows the great potential of integrated OEO in a wide range of applications such as wireless communications and satellite communications.