Wideband Microwave Frequency Division Based on an Optoelectronic Oscillator

• Published in: IEEE photonics technology letters Vol. 31; no. 5; pp. 389 - 392
• Main Authors: Liu, Shifeng, Lv, Kailin, Fu, Jianbin, Wu, Lugang, Pan, Wansheng, Pan, Shilong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.03.2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Broadband; Carrier-suppressed optical double sideband modulation; Frequency conversion; Frequency dividers; frequency division; Frequency modulation; Frequency ranges; Mach-Zehnder interferometers; Maximum power; Microwave frequencies; Noise levels; Optical amplifiers; Optical filters; Optical modulation; optoelectronic oscillator; Optoelectronics; Oscillators; Radio frequency; Sidebands; wideband
• ISSN: 1041-1135; 1941-0174
• DOI: 10.1109/LPT.2019.2896062

A novel wideband microwave frequency divider based on a single-loop optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) is proposed and demonstrated. The Mach-Zehnder modulator in the OEO is biased at the carrier suppression point to generate the ±1st order optical sidebands by the input frequency and the oscillating frequency, which produces an intermediate-frequency (IF) signal at a photodetector. If the IF frequency is half of the input frequency, optoelectronic oscillation is established, which outputs an RF signal with a frequency that is 1/2 of the input frequency. Because there are no filters incorporated in the OEO loop, the operation frequency range is broad. In a proof-of-concept experiment, the input signal with a frequency ranging from 12 to 20 GHz (or from 20 to 36 GHz) is successfully divided into 6 to 10 GHz (or 10 to 18 GHz). The maximum power ripple is 2.92 dB, and the phase noise improvement is 5.71 dB, which agrees well with the theoretical value.