A 16-GHz linear analog heterodyne RF optical link employing a WIRNA receiver

We demonstrate a 16-GHz analog heterodyne optical link operating at 1.55-μm wavelength with a noise figure of (40/spl plusmn/1) dB and spurious-free dynamic range of (108/spl plusmn/2) dB /spl middot/ Hz²3/. The wide-band rectifier narrow-band amplifier receiver architecture is employed with improvements over previous work to minimize the number of components in the link. The link performance is compared with that of an intensity modulated direct detection link. We show that further improvements in noise figure can be realized using balanced photodetector receivers. To our knowledge, this is the highest reported bandwidth of a linear analog optical link reported to date, and shows the advantages of employing heterodyne versus direct detection for such applications.