UWB Impulse Radio Transmitter Using an Electrooptic Phase Modulator Together With a Delay Interferometer

A simple ultra-wideband (UWB) impulse radio transmitter is experimentally demonstrated using an electrooptic phase modulator (PM) and a delay interferometer (DI). By applying an electrical nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) baseband signal to the PM, a pair of optical Gaussian pulses with opposite polarities is generated at the two output ports of the DI. By properly setting the delay between these two polarity-reversed optical Gaussian pulses using an optical delay line (ODL) component, an optical UWB monocycle pulse is generated. Pulse amplitude modulation of the UWB monocycle pulse can also be achieved by driving the PM with an NRZ baseband signal at a flexible bit rate. Experimental results verify that the proposed scheme can be used to simultaneously generate and amplitude modulate the UWB monocycle pulse. Furthermore, both the shape and polarity of the generated UWB monocycle pulse can be easily controlled by appropriately adjusting the delay of the ODL. Pulse polarity modulation of the generated UWB monocycle can also be realized by electrically switching the bias voltage of the DI.