RF Frequency Mixer Photonic Integrated Circuit

Abstract

We present the first self-contained photonic integrated circuit (PIC) that downconverts RF signals. The frequency conversion is achieved by nonlinear optical phase modulation inside a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator. The frequency conversion linearity is enhanced by canceling the nonlinearities of the optical phase modulation and the MZ modulator. The PIC demonstrated ~110 dB · Hz <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2/3</sup> spurious-free dynamic range.