Photonic Millimeter-wave Generation Beyond the Cavity Thermal Limit

Author(s)

Abstract

With the next generation of telecommunications and radar/navigation upon us, moving from the microwave to the higher bandwidth, millimeter-wave domain has become ever relevant. Simultaneously, the burgeoning field of photonic integrated chips has yielded a path toward simplified and portable, low-noise mm-wave generation for these applications. By heterodyning two silicon photonic chip lasers, phase-locked to the same miniature F-P cavity, we demonstrate a simplified framework for generating low-noise millimeter-waves; mm-waves are generated with phase noise below the thermal limit of the reference cavity using already exisiting, integrable photonic technologies. In particular, we generate 94.5 GHz and 118.1 GHz millimeter-wave signals with phase noise of $-117$dBc/Hz at 10 kHz offset, decreasing to $-120$ dBc/Hz at 40 kHz offset, a record low for photonic devices. With the capability of being integrated into a platform less than $10 \hspace3 pt}\textmL}$ in volume, this work illustrates the potential of low size, weight, and power (SWaP) photonic-sourced mm-waves.

Keywords

Physics, Information technology and Advanced communications

Citation

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