Remotely Up-Converted 20-Gbit/s Error-Free Wireless On–Off-Keying Data Transmission at W-Band Using an Ultra-Wideband Photonic Transmitter-Mixer

We demonstrate a remotely up-converted and distributed 20-Gbit/s wireless on-off-keying (OOK) data transmission link at the W-band that uses a near-ballistic uni-traveling-carrier photodiode (NBUTC-PD)-based photonic transmitter-mixer. This device consists of an active NBUTC-PD integrated with a planar passive circuit for feeding the intermediate-frequency (IF) modulation input and extracting the up-converted optical-to-electrical (O-E) output signals. An equivalent-circuit model is developed, which allows for the O-E and IF responses to be independently optimized. Accordingly, we can achieve both an ultra-wide O-E bandwidth (67-118 GHz) and IF modulation bandwidth (>;15 GHz) with a very-low coupling loss (<; 2 dB) from the NBUTC-PD to the WR-10 waveguide. We adopted a remotely distributed 1-ps optical pulse train source with a repetition rate at 93 GHz to serve as a high-performance photonic carrier, which is generated by a spectral line-by-line shaper utilizing the repetition-rate multiplication (RRM) technique. In contrast to lossy amplitude filtering, our RRM is based on applying periodic loss-less spectral phase filtering onto the 31-GHz comb lines. In comparison with the conventional 93-GHz sinusoidal carrier, the photogenerated millimeter-wave (MMW) power of this kind of carrier is 4 dB higher than that of PD under the same output photocurrent. In contrast to the traditional mode-locked laser, the fiber dispersion can be totally precompensated without additional dispersion compensation components. By use of such device and optical MMW source, we successfully demonstrate remotely distributed and up-converted 20-Gbit/s error-free OOK wireless data transmission link over a 25-km standard single-mode fiber.