Abstract: | To generate high-frequency radio frequency(RF) vector signals, a vector signal generation method by optical frequency sextupling using a dual-parallel modulator is proposed. The method modulates vector signal on +3 rd order optical sideband and local oscillator(LO) signal on-3 rd order sideband using the intermodulation process in the DPMZM. After suppressing of the optical carrier and other sidebands through proper adjustment for modulator biases and modulation index, a frequency sextupled millimeter-wave vector signal can be generated after photodetection. The frequency sextupling will lower the bandwidth of the modulator, the local oscillator and the driving circuits. In addition, the phase of generated signal is not distorted after detection, and the power fading after fiber transmission can be avoided. In the simulation, a 500-MSym/s QPSK signal at 60 GHz is generated by 10-GHz drive signal. After travelling over fiber with length of 20/30/40-km, receiver power penalty keeps below 2.5 dB. |