Photonic microwave frequency conversion scheme with flexible phase shift

In this paper, a single, flexible and stable optical frequency conversion scheme with tunable phase shift is proposed. It mainly consists of a dual-parallel binary phase shift keying (DP-BPSK) modulator and a polarization modulator (PolM). Properly setting the values of two DC bias points in the DP-BPSK modulator, the frequency conversion ability can be achieved. Meanwhile, the phase shift can also be realized by controlling the DC voltage that drives the PolM or tuning the polarization controller (PC3). The simulation results show that a 20?GHz RF signal can be converted into a 10?GHz IF signal with the conversion efficiency of ?4.45?dB and a full 0° to 360° phase shift. It should be noted that the system performs well against different non-ideal factors such as extinction ratio, DC drifting or different LO and RF amplitudes. In addition, spurious free dynamic range of 82.14 dB·Hz^2/3 is achieved and it can be greatly improved if a better extinction ratio is available.