A Microwave Photonic Multiple Frequency System with Tunable Frequency Multiplication Factor of 3–10

A microwave photonic system with a tunable frequency multiplication factor of 3–10 is theoretically analyzed and simulated. The system mainly consists of three dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulators (DPMZM). With the use of programmable filter, a fixed-order optical sideband can be accurately obtained as a carrier for secondary modulation. By adjusting the parameters such as the direct current (DC) bias voltage and the radio frequency (RF) drive voltage of each DPMZM in the system, microwave signals with a frequency multiplication factor of 3–10 can be generated. The simulation results show that when the frequency of RF signal is 10GHz, microwave signals with frequencies of 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100GHz can be generated with an unwanted harmonic suppression ratio of 20dB. During the frequency multiplication process, the overlap of the signal in the frequency domain is well avoided because of combining an optical programmable filter. In addition, the process of multi-frequency signal generation is theoretically derived, and the effects of several non-ideal factors on the radio frequency spurious suppression ratio (RFSSR) are analyzed.