Rapidly reconfigurable radio-frequency arbitrary waveforms synthesized on a CMOS photonic chip

Abstract

Photonic methods of radio-frequency waveform generation and processing provide performance and flexibility over electronic methods due to the ultrawide bandwidth offered by the optical carriers. However, they suffer from lack of integration and slow reconfiguration speed. Here we propose an architecture of integrated photonic RF waveform generation and processing, and implement it on a silicon chip fabricated in a semiconductor manufacturing foundry. Our device can generate programmable RF bursts or continuous waveforms with only the light source, electrical drives/controls and detectors being off chip. It turns on and off an individual pulse in the RF burst within 4 nanoseconds, achieving a reconfiguration speed three orders of magnitude faster than thermal tuning. The on-chip optical delay elements offers an integrated approach to accurately manipulate individual RF waveform features without constrains set by the speed and timing jitter of electronics, and should find broad applications ranging from high-speed wireless to defense electronics.

arXiv comment14 pages, 4 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Generation of Ultrastable Microwaves via Optical Frequency Division
• Spectral Line-by-Line Pulse Shaping of an On-Chip Microresonator Frequency Comb
• Generation of very flat optical frequency combs from continuous-wave lasers using cascaded intensity and phase modulators driven by tailored radio frequency waveforms

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