Reduction of Photodiode Nonlinearities by Adaptive Biasing

Abstract

RF photonic links impress information on modulated optical carriers as a method of transporting high frequency and microwave information over sizeable distances. If the system bandwidth is greater than one octave, the system must contend with the possibility of second order intermodulation distortion (IMD2) creating spurious tones due to nonlinearities. These spurious tones masquerade as signals and impair the performance of the photonic link. Earlier research has shown the utility of defining a nonlinear coefficient that relates the nonlinear second order distortion from two optical tones to the product of the powers of those tones. This nonlinear coefficient was shown to be a function of (i) the bias voltage applied to the photodiode/load resistor combination (Vtot), (ii) the DC level of current through the photodiode, IDC, and (iii) the IMD output frequency

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Oct 14, 2016
Accession Number
ADA640902

Entities

People

  • Caitlin R. Williams
  • Meredith N. Hutchinson
  • N.J. Frigo

Organizations

  • United States Naval Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Advanced Electronics

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Analyzers
  • Attenuation
  • Bandwidth
  • Detection
  • Detectors
  • Difference Frequency
  • Distortion
  • Electro-Optic Modulators
  • Frequency
  • Intensity
  • Load Monitoring
  • Microwave Photonics
  • Modulators
  • Photonics
  • Radio Frequency Power
  • Spectrum Analyzers
  • Standards

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Optical Fiber Sensing and Electromagnetic Propagation.
  • Radio communications and signal processing.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy