Study on filterless frequency-tupling millimeter-wave generator with tunable optical carrier to sideband ratio

• A novel filterless frequency 12-tupler scheme.
• A novel filterless frequency 36-tupler scheme.
• The frequency 36-tupler With tunable optical carrier to sideband ratio.

In this study, two filterless frequency-tupling millimeter-wave (mm-wave) generator schemes are theoretically analyzed and verified by simulation. The first one is a frequency 12-tupler, made by a dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-MZM), capable of generating the six-order optical harmonic, directly. The second one is a frequency 36-tupler, consisted by the proposed frequency 12-tupler and an optical remodulator, which can utilize the six-order optical harmonic to generate frequency 36-tupling mm-wave signal and adjust the optical carrier to sideband ratio (OCSR) of the generated optical signal. The simulations show that without any filter, two frequency-tupling schemes both with good frequency tunability. By turning the RF driving signal from 5 GHz to 8 GHz, the frequency 12-tupler, with the frequency ranging from 60 to 96 GHz can be obtained, and the optical sideband suppression ratio (OSSR) and the electrical spurious suppression ratio (ESSR) is over 37 dB and 36 dB, respectively. With the RF driving signal varying from 1.75 GHz to 3.25 GHz, a wideband mm-wave signals with the frequency ranging from 63 GHz to 117 GHz will generated by the frequency 36-tupler, the OSSR and ESSR is over 28 dB and 23 dB, respectively. Moreover, with careful adjusting the gain of remodulator, the OCSR of the mm-wave signal generated by the frequency 36-tupler can be continuous turning from 4.1 dB to 44.1 dB and the transmission performance of the proposed schemes based radio-over-fiber downlink system is also demonstrated.