All-optical generation of binary phase-coded microwave pulses without baseband components based on a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator.

In this paper, we propose an all-optical system for the generation of binary phase-coded microwave pulses without baseband components. The scheme is based on a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPMZM). By properly applying the coding signals and the microwave signals to the precisely biased DPMZM, accurate π phase shift binary phase-coded microwave pulses without baseband components can be generated. The proposed system has an extremely simple and stable all-optical structure, leading to a large frequency tuning range and a high signal quality. The operation of the system is very easy. The generation of the 2-Gbit/s 14-GHz and 4-Gbit/s 16-GHz binary phase-coded microwave pulses under different coding signal amplitudes and microwave carrier powers are experimental verified. The results show that the proposed binary phase-coded microwave pulses generation system has high quality and performance.

Photonic generation of background-free binary and quaternary phase-coded microwave pulses based on vector sum.

A photonic microwave phase-coded pulse generator is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on the principle of vector sum. The key component of the proposed pulse generator is an integrated polarization-division multiplexing Mach-Zehnder modulator (PDM-MZM) and a 90° hybrid coupler. By properly setting the data sequences applied to the specially biased PDM-MZM, binary and quaternary phase-coded microwave pulses (PCMPs) that are free from the background signals can be generated. Since no filters and polarization adjustment are involved, the proposed pulse generator is characterized by a simple structure, low-loss, flexible frequency tunability and high long-term stability. The experimental results show that background-free 4 Gb/s Barker and Frank PCMPs at 18 GHz and 2 Gb/s Barker and Frank PCMPs at 24 GHz are successfully generated. The calculated pulse compression ratio and peak-to-side lobe ratio are in good agreement with the theoretical values.

Equivalent photonic switch for microwave frequency shift keying signal generation.

A photonic microwave frequency shift keying (FSK) signal generator is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on an equivalent photonic switch (EPS). The EPS is constructed using a polarization-multiplexing dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (PM-DMZM). By properly controlling the data sequences and RF signals applied to the PM-DMZM, microwave FSK signals with flexible frequency intervals can be obtained. The proposed FSK signal generator features the advantages of a simple structure, low loss, good stability, and great frequency tunability. In addition, the proposed setup can also be easily reconfigured to generate microwave amplitude shift keying and phase shift keying signals. The experimental results show that 2 Gb/s at 5/14 GHz and 1 Gb/s at 6/20 GHz microwave FSK signals are successfully generated, after transmission over 5 km single-mode fiber. The required received optical power at 7% forward error correction threshold is only -14.48 dBm.

Optical network solution to the synchronization of distributed coherent aperture radar.

Distributed coherent aperture radar (DCAR) is an important direction for next-generation radar due to its high sensitivity. The challenge to realize DCAR is the synchronization among geographically distributed radar units. We propose an optical network for DCAR synchronization. The proposed network achieves functions of phase-coded pulse generation, time synchronization, and phase synchronization with the help of microwave photonics techniques. Proof-of-concept experiments are conducted in fiber and space transmission scenarios. The combined radar beams have negligible energy loss when synchronization is achieved.