Various photonic circuit architectures for RF frequency multiplication and frequency translation are presented. Firstly a systematic design method for the suppression of unwanted harmonics produced by parallel phase modulator arrays is developed. The analyzed configuration comprises of N-parallel phase modulators electrically driven with a progressive 2π/N phase shift. For N = 4, the analyzed circuit is conceptually equivalent to the DP-MZM architecture available in LiNbO_3 technology. Improved implementations of some functions can be achieved for a larger number of phase modulators. Secondly, a photonic circuit architecture capable of implementing frequency up-conversion and frequency octo-tupling is proposed and verified by computer simulations. The circuit requires no DC-bias as the static phase shifts are introduced by using the intrinsic relative phase relations between the output and input ports of MMI couplers. The single side-band operation can be performed for a wide range of modulation index whilst the frequency octo-tupling requires a more specific modulation index. Last but never the least, a photonic circuit architecture featuring two-stage MZM architecture is proposed for frequency octo-tupling and 24-tupling. The analysis and simulations prove this cascade architecture is advantageous compared to the single-stage parallel MZM configuration with equivalent function because it requires 3-dB less power in RF drive.
展开▼
