Photonic Generation of Phase-Coded Microwave Signal with Tunable Frequency Multiplication Factor

A phase-coded microwave signal generation method based on parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) with tunable frequency multiplication factor is proposed and demonstrated. By controlling the modulation index and the optical power ratio of the parallel MZMs, phase-coded microwave signals with frequency multiplication factors of 1, 3 and 5 are obtained. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated by theoretical analysis and simulation, in which binary phase-coded signals with carrier frequency of 1GHz, 3GHz or 5GHz are respectively generated under 1GHz radio frequency (RF) signal input.