Flexible mm-Wave Frequency and High-Speed Arbitrary IQ Signal Synthesis by a Photonic System on Chip

Abstract: Photonics-assisted millimeter-wave bands and terahertz signal generation offer significant advantages over traditional electronic methods by leveraging the inherent benefits of optical components, including broad bandwidth, low power consumption, and minimal insertion loss. This work utilizes a silicon photonic chip in conjunction with a reconfigurable optical frequency comb to demonstrate the synthesis of signals in the millimeter-wave range. The implemented photonic system performs on-chip filtering and modulation, producing high-bandwidth single frequency, multi-frequency, and vector signals suitable for arbitrary IQ signal construction. These results highlight the flexible and reconfigurable capabilities of the proposed approach, providing new perspectives for applications in radio-over-fiber systems and beyond.