Phase Comparison Method for Wide-Frequency-Range Microwave Photonic Signals

The goal of this study is to establish a phase comparison method using high-frequency microwave photonic signals. The signal is generated as a beat frequency of a dual-wavelength optical signal. We propose a double differential phase comparison method suitable for a phase-locked loop. This is achieved by using an optical frequency shifter and two low-frequency photomixers (optical-to-electrical signal converters). The basic approach of the method is that the phase difference between the high-frequency dual-wavelength signals can be measured as a differential phase of the detected low-frequency microwave signals by two respective low-frequency photomixers without high-frequency photomixers. With this approach, the phase comparison of any range of frequencies of the dual-wavelength signals can be performed by two identical low-frequency photomixers. In an application of this method for separate fiber-coupled stations, a common laser signal transmission is effectively carried out with a dual-wavelength optical signal. We conducted an experiment to verify the effectiveness of the double differential phase comparison method by comparing the direct phase comparison method.