Open AccessIntegrated microwave photonic phase shifter with full tunable phase shifting range (> 360°) and RF power equalization
Author(s) -
Suen Xin Chew,
Duanni Huang,
Liwei Li,
Shijie Song,
Minh A. Tran,
Xiaoke Yi,
John E. Bowers
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.27.014798
Subject(s) - phase shift module , radio frequency , phase (matter) , rf power amplifier , optics , amplitude , microwave , photonics , materials science , resonator , optoelectronics , interferometry , insertion loss , physics , telecommunications , computer science , cmos , amplifier , quantum mechanics
We report a novel microwave photonic phase and amplitude control structure based on a single microring resonator with a tunable Mach Zehnder interferometer reflective loop, which enables the realization of a continuously tunable microwave photonic phase shifter with enhanced phase tuning range while simultaneously compensating for the RF power variations. The complimentary tuning of the phase and amplitude presents a simplistic approach to resolve the inherent trade-off between maintaining a full RF phase shift while eliminating large RF power variations. Detailed simulations have been carried out to analyze the performance of the new structure as a microwave photonic phase shifter, where the reflective nature of the proposed configuration shows an effective doubling of the phase range while the amplitude compensation module provides a parallel control to potentially reduce the RF amplitude variations to virtually zero. The phase range enhancement, which is first verified experimentally with a passive only chip, demonstrates the capability to achieve a continuously tunable RF phase shift of 0-510° with an RF amplitude variation of 9 dB. Meanwhile, the amplitude compensation scheme is incorporated onto an active chip with a continuously tunable RF phase shift of 0-150°, where the RF power variations is shown to be reduced by 5 dB while maintaining a constant RF phase shift.