Integrated optoelectronic oscillator

Abstract

With the rapid development of the modern communication systems, radar and wireless services, microwave signal with high-frequency, high-spectral-purity and frequency tunability as well as microwave generator with light weight, compact size, power-efficient and low cost are increasingly demanded. Integrated microwave photonics (IMWP) is regarded as a prospective way to meet these demands by hybridizing the microwave circuits and the photonics circuits on chip. In this article, we propose and experimentally demonstrate an integrated optoelectronic oscillator (IOEO). All of the devices needed in the optoelectronic oscillation loop circuit are monolithically integrated on chip within size of 5×6cm. By tuning the injection current to 44 mA, the output frequency of the proposed IOEO is located at 7.30 GHz with phase noise value of -91 dBc/Hz@1MHz. When the injection current is increased to 65 mA, the output frequency can be changed to 8.87 GHz with phase noise value of -92 dBc/Hz@1MHz. Both of the oscillation frequency can be slightly tuned within 20 MHz around the center oscillation frequency by tuning the injection current. The method about improving the performance of IOEO is carefully discussed at the end of in this article.

An example of design, optimization, stabilization and noise performances of resonator-based optoelectronic oscillators

“…The global uncertainty is ±2 dB at 2s with accredited calibration [23,24]. Recent works concur with Integrated OEO [25] with good results with resonator on chip and athermal waveguides applied to ring resonators [26].…”

Wideband tunable microwave signal generation in a silicon-micro-ring-based optoelectronic oscillator

“…This is, to the best of our knowledge, the widest tunability range reported for a Si-based OEO. A phase noise near -110 dBc/Hz at the offset frequency of 1 MHz, comparable with state-of-the-art photonic OEO 11,12 , is measured for different oscillation frequencies along the 12 GHz tuning range. Concurrently, the proposed OEO performs a precise translation of the laser-to-RR wavelength separation into the microwave domain, where it can be precisely measured.…”

“…In addition, the progress of integrated microwave photonics (IMWP) 9 provides now a solid framework for the full integration of an OEO. Several efforts in this direction have been demonstrated recently 10,11,12 . M. Merklein et al, in 10 demonstrated ultrawide frequency tunable signals up to 40 GHz by using OEO based on stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS).…”

Microwave Photonic Radars

“…Up to now, many achievements have been reported on the photonic integrated circuits for possible radar applications [400]. In particular, a variety of integrated optical beamformers have been demonstrated based on optical ring resonators [71], Mach-Zehnder delay interferometer [401], and arrayed waveguide grating [402]; integrated OEOs were also reported although the phase noise performance still needs improvement [403]. In addition, some multifunctional building blocks such as reflective-type microring resonator [404] and programmable 2D mesh network [405] have been demonstrated, which might be useful for reconfigurable or software-defined microwave photonic radar.…”