Photonic-aided W-band dual-vector RF signal generation and detection enabled by bandpass delta-sigma modulation and heterodyne detection

We propose a photonic-aided dual-vector radio-frequency (RF) signal generation and detection scheme enabled by bandpass delta-sigma modulation and heterodyne detec-tion. With the aid of the bandpass delta-sigma modu-lation, our proposed scheme is transparent to the mod-ulation format of the dual-vector RF signals and can support the generation, wireless transmission, and detec-tion of both single-carrier (SC) and orthogonal-frequency -division-multiplexing (OFDM) vector RF signals with high-level quadrature-amplitude-modulation (QAM) modula-tion. With the aid of the heterodyne detection, our proposed scheme can support up to W-band (75-110 GHz) dual-vector RF signal generation and detection. For the validation of our proposed scheme, we experimentally demonstrate the simultaneous generation of a SC-64QAM signal at 94.5 GHz and a SC-128QAM signal at 93.5 GHz and their error-free high-fidelity transmission over a 20-km single-mode fiber 28 (SMF-28) and a 1-m single-input single-output (SISO) wireless link at the W-band. To the best of our knowl-edge, this is the first time that delta-sigma modulation has been introduced into a W-band photonic-aided fiber-wireless integration system to achieve flexible and high-fidelity dual -vector RF signal generation and detection. (c) 2023 Optica Publishing Group