Photonic frequency upconversion technique using electro-absorption modulator for radio-over-fibre applications

A photonic frequency upconverter utilising an electro-absorption modulator has been experimentally demonstrated for radio-over-fibre applications. Using the upconverter, an optical radio frequency (RF) signal having RF frequencies of 19.5 and 28.5 GHz was generated by mixing a 4.5 GHz optical intermediate frequency signal with a 24 GHz electrical local oscillator signal. The compact photonic frequency upconverter requires no DC bias controller and showed high linearity and polarisation immunity. The measured spurious free dynamic range was 95.4 dB Hz^2/3.