A Scheme for Generating Millimeter Wave Signals through 32-Tupling Frequency Multiplication without Filtering Using Eight Mach-Zehnder Modulators

In this paper, a filterless 32-tupling millimeter wave generation scheme based on eight MZMs is proposed. The system has an upper and lower parallel two-branch structure. The upper branch consists of two subsystems Sub-A and Sub-B in cascade, each subsystem contains four MZMs, and the MZMs are all operating at maximum transfer point (MATP). Sub-A mainly generates ±8th order optical sideband signal as the incident light signal of Sub-B. After modulation of Sub−B, the output signal is mainly ±16th order optical sideband signal containing the central optical carrier component. The optical attenuator (OATT) and optical phase shifter (OPS) of the lower branch are used to regulate the phase and amplitude of the optical carrier. The upper and lower branches are coupled, and the central optical carrier component is superimposed and cancelled so only the ±16th order optical sideband signal is retained. Finally, the 32-tupling frequency millimeter is generated by the photodiode (PD) receiver after photoelectric detection which receives and generates a 32-tupling frequency millimeter wave signal. The simulation results show that the 160 GHz millimeter wave signal can be obtained by driving the MZM with a 5 GHz RF signal, and the optical sideband suppression ratio (OSSR) and the RF sideband suppression ratio (RFSSR) are 52.6 dB and 44.75 dB, respectively. Theoretical analysis and simulation experiments are carried out for the proposed scheme which proves the feasibility of the scheme.