Ten gigabits per second 16-level quadrature amplitude modulated millimeter-wave carrier generation using dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulators incorporated photonic-vector modulator

摘要

A novel photonic-vector modulator architecture for the generation of 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16 QAM) millimeter-wave carriers using dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulators is proposed. Experimental generation of 5 Gbits/s 4 amplitude shift-keying (4 ASK) and 10 Gbits/s 16 QAM modulated 42 GHz carriers is reported. The multilevel modulated millimeter-wave signals are demodulated using an electrical receiver and its error-vector magnitude (EVM) estimated from the measurements, obtaining EVMs of -21.04 and -18.33 dB for 4 ASK and 16 QAM modulation formats, respectively.