Silicon slow-light-based photonic mixer for microwave-frequency conversion applications

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Microwave Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Photonic mixing is crucial for frequency upconversion in microwave signal processing.
• Silicon electro-optical modulators offer potential for integrated photonic solutions.
• Slow-light propagation can enhance device performance by increasing light-matter interaction time.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel method for photonic mixing of microwave signals.
• To improve the upconversion performance using slow-light enhanced silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators.
• To achieve low conversion losses and high signal quality.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a silicon electro-optical Mach-Zehnder modulator.
• Implemented slow-light propagation in a one-dimensional periodic structure to achieve a group index of ~11.
• Employed a minimum transmission point for efficient upconversion of input signals from 1 to 10.25 GHz.

Main Results:

• Achieved efficient microwave signal upconversion from 1 to 10.25 GHz.
• Demonstrated very low conversion losses of approximately 7 dB.
• Obtained excellent quality for the received I/Q modulated Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) signal with an Error Vector Magnitude (EVM) of ~8%.

Conclusions:

• The proposed slow-light enhanced photonic mixing method offers a promising approach for high-performance microwave signal processing.
• This technique enables significant improvements in upconversion efficiency and signal fidelity.
• The use of silicon photonics and slow light paves the way for compact and efficient integrated microwave photonic systems.