Photonic Generation of Phase-Coded Microwave Signal With Large Frequency Tunability

A photonic approach to realizing phase-coded microwave signal generation with large frequency tunability is proposed and demonstrated. Two coherent optical wavelengths are generated based on external modulation by biasing a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) at the minimum transmission point to generate ±1 -order sidebands while suppressing the optical carrier. The two ±1-order sidebands are then sent to a fiber Sagnac interferometer (SI) incorporating an optical phase modulator (PM) and a broadband flat-top fiber Bragg grating (FBG), with one of the sidebands being phase modulated at the PM. A frequency tunable phase-coded microwave signal is generated by beating the two sidebands at a photodetector (PD). The proposed technique is experimentally investigated. The generation of a frequency tunable phase-coded microwave signal at 22 and 27 GHz is demonstrated.