Photonic generation of a phase-coded microwave signal based on a single dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator.

A compact scheme for photonic generation of a phase-coded microwave signal using a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator (DMZM) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed scheme, the radio frequency (RF) carrier and the coding signal are sent to the two RF ports of the DMZM, respectively. By properly setting the amplitude of the coding signal and the bias voltage of the DMZM, an exact π-phase-shift phase-coded microwave signal is generated. The proposed scheme has a simple structure since only a single DMZM is required. In addition, good frequency tunability is achieved because no frequency-dependent electrical devices or wavelength-dependent optical devices are applied. The feasibility of the proposed scheme is verified by experiment. 2 or 2.5 Gb/s phase-coded 10 and 20 GHz microwave signals are successfully generated.