A photonic BPSK modulation with 2.5 GHz RF signal from a microwave optoelectronic oscillator

This article presents a photonic circuit that achieves direct carrier BPSK modulation of a RF signal from an opto-electronic oscillator suitable for satellite telemetry and control. The circuit was implemented with two Mach-Zehnder optical modulators. The optical wavelength is 1550 nm. One modulator was used to construct an optoelectronic oscillator to generate a carrier with frequency equal to 2.5 GHz. The second modulator was used to perform the BPSK direct modulation of the carrier signal. A bit rate of 1 Mbps was used and an EVM of 9.6% was obtained. The diagrams of the optoelectronic circuits and the modulation measurements are displayed.