Dengcai Yang

To enhance the end-face coupling efficiency of lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) chips, in conjunction with current device fabrication processes, a stepped spot size converter (SSC) based on a special outer envelope profile has been proposed and investigated. This stepped SSC can reduce the coupling loss between the LNOI waveguide and a normal single-mode optical fiber. First, the output waveguide of a mode converter was proposed and simulated, in which the mode field had the biggest overlapping integral factor with a single-mode fiber (MDF ≈ 9.8 μm). Then, a stepped LNOI waveguide, the basic structure of the mode converter, with three kinds of outer envelope profile, was proposed and analyzed. Through analysis of the impacts of different envelope profiles on mode spot conversion efficiency, the relationship between envelope profile and propagation efficiency was obtained. Additionally, the rule of LNOI stair height variation tendency and the pattern of mode spot conversion efficiency for the multi-step mode spot converter in LNOI were obtained. Ultimately, a stepped SSC with a COS-shaped envelope curve was adopted. When this stepped SSC is coupled to single-mode fiber with a mode-field diameter of 9.8 μm, the coupling efficiency of the TE mode was 95.35% at the wavelength of 1550 nm.

A novel photonic-assisted multifunctional radar system was proposed and experimentally investigated. This system can simultaneously achieve frequency-doubled linear frequency modulation (LFM) signal generation, de-chirp reception, self-interference cancellation, and frequency measurement in an integrated transmit-receive radar. First, a high-frequency and broadband LO signal was obtained with photonic frequency doubling, which improved the center frequency and bandwidth of the radar detection system. Then, photonic-assisted interference cancellation was used to reduce the impact of interference signals in radar de-chirp reception. Finally, the microwave frequency measurement was achieved by establishing a mapping relationship between the envelope response time of the intermediate frequency (IF) electrical filter and the microwave frequency to be tested. Both theoretical and experimental investigations were performed. The results showed that an LFM signal with a frequency range of 12–18 GHz was obtained with photonic frequency doubling. Photonic-assisted self-interference cancellation reduced the impact of interference signals in radar de-chirp reception by more than 12.1 dB for an LFM signal bandwidth of 6 GHz. In the frequency measurement module, the difference between the frequency to be tested, generated by the external signal source, and that calculated in the experiment is the measurement error, and a measurement resolution better than 14 MHz was achieved in the range of 12.14 GHz–18.14 GHz. The proposed system is suitable for miniaturized multifunctional radar signal processing systems with continuous operation of transmitting and receiving antennas in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), automotive radar, relatively close spatial locations, and so on. In addition, it can simplify the system structure and reduce space occupation.

A photonics-assisted binary/quaternary phase-coded microwave signal generator with fundamental/doubling reconfigurable carrier frequency applicable to digital I/O interfaces is proposed and has been verified by experiments. This scheme is based on a cascade modulation scheme, which is used to reconfigure fundamental/doubling carrier frequency and load the phase-coded signal, respectively. By controlling the radio frequency (RF) switch and the bias voltages of the modulator, the switching of the fundamental or doubling carrier frequency can be realized. When the amplitudes and sequence pattern of the two independent coding signals are set reasonably, binary or quaternary phase-coded signals can be realized. The sequence pattern of coding signals is applicable to digital I/O interfaces and can be directly generated through the IO interfaces of FPGA instead of an expensive high-speed arbitrary waveform generator (AWG) or other digital-to-analog conversion (DAC) systems. A proof-of-concept experiment is carried out, and the performance of the proposed system is evaluated from the aspects of phase recovery accuracy and pulse compression capability. In addition, the influence of residual carrier suppression and polarization crosstalk in non-ideal states on phase shifting based on polarization adjustment has also been analyzed.

We propose and fabricate an ultrafast and high extinction ratio 1×4 optical switch based on a cascade, dual-output Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) on the lithium niobate platform. The optical switch consists of cascaded, identical, dual-output MZI structures, and each of them includes a Y-branch waveguide, two parallel interference arms (electrode action area), and a 3 dB directional coupler. Four output optical paths can be switched through three groups of electrode hierarchical modulation. The test results of the fabricated device show that the insertion loss of each port is less than 7.1 dB and that the maximum extinction ratio is higher than 39.3 dB. The optical switch can achieve a high extinction ratio greater than 20 dB within the 50 nm wavelength range. The measured half-wave voltage is less than 4.13 V, and the minimum switching rise and fall times reach 125 ps and 250 ps, respectively. This result shows that the proposed and fabricated 1×4 integrated optical switch on a lithium niobate platform has the advantages of a fast response rate, high extinction ratio, and low switching voltage.

Microwave photonic phase-shifting technology can be used to generate high-frequency, broadband, and tunable phase-coded microwave signals, which are helpful in solving the contradiction between the detection range and the range resolution in radar systems. A method for generating a reconfigurable carrier phase-coded signal of a fundamental or doubled carrier frequency, based on polarization multiplexed technology, is proposed and verified by the experiments in this paper. A dual-parallel dual-polarization Mach–Zehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM) and a polarization-dependent phase modulator (PD-PM) were used to load the carrier and the phase-shifting signal, respectively. By reasonably configuring the state of the RF switch and the bias voltages of the sub-DPMZM, the fundamental or doubled carrier frequency can be obtained through photoelectric conversion. The reconfigurable carrier frequency gives the system a wider work bandwidth range and can effectively reduce the frequency requirement for local oscillator (LO) signals. By adjusting the driving voltage, the broadband microwave signal can be phase-shifted within the range of 360°, and when the phase-shifted control signal is a multilevel amplitude signal, it can generate binary, quaternary, or other high-order phase-coded signals, which have high reconfigurable performance and potential application value in multifunctional radar systems. In addition, the scheme has wideband tunability, since no optical filter is involved. The proposed scheme was theoretically analyzed and experimentally verified. Binary, quaternary, and octal phase-coded signals, with fundamental and doubled frequencies centered at 8 GHz and 16 GHz, were successfully generated.

A novel photonics-assisted method for frequency up/down conversion with tunable optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) and phase shift is presented based on an integrated dual-polarization dual-parallel MachZehnder modulator (DP-DPMZM). The local oscillator (LO) signal with high spectral purity and low phase noise is generated by an OEO loop in one of the sub-DPMZMs. The frequency can be adjusted by an electrical band-pass filter (EBPF). The radio frequency (RF) signal is injected into another sub-DPMZM. The carrier-suppressed single-sideband (CS-SSB) modulation of both LO and RF signals is achieved. The phase of converted signal can be tuned by an integrated dual-channel phase modulator (DPM). The frequency up/down conversion can be switched by tuning a single bias voltage of the DP-DPMZM. Multiple functions including tunable LO, up/down conversion and phase shift can be realized. Meanwhile the dispersion-induced power fading is well compensated due to the CS-SSB modulation. In experiments, the tunable LO signal from 5 to 18 GHz, with the sidemode suppression ratio as high as 46.1 dB and the phase noise of 104.5 dBc/Hz@10 kHz at 10 GHz is generated successfully. The spur suppression ratios of the up/down converted signals are 32.6 dB and 35.6 dB respectively. The up/down conversion performance for RF carrying 16 quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM) signal is also investigated. The phase shifting of dual-channel converted signals can be varied continuously and independently in the range of 360 and the phase deviation is 1.8. The proposed compact link is characterized by function multiplexing and inherent dispersion compensation.

A photonic microwave down-conversion approach is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on a Mach-Zehnder modulator paralleled with a phase modulator. The incident radio frequency signal and the local oscillator signal are feed to the MZM and PM, respectively, and these two modulated optical signals interfere in the coupler. The useless higher-order sidebands are removed by a tunable optical band-pass filter. The principle of microwave frequency down-conversion is analyzed theoretically, the MZM and PM paralleled frequency down-conversion system is built. Then the performance of system is tested, and the experimental results show that the spurious-free dynamic range achieves 104.8 dB:Hz^2/3. Compared to the conventional MZM-MZM cascaded system, the SFDR has been improved by 16 dB. The MZM and PM paralleled frequency down-conversion system can balance the intensity of the two coherent beams easily, and only single DC bias is needed. The proposed method possesses simple structure and high dynamic range.

DIW (Dynamometer Inertia Weight) of 'chassis dynamometers for automobile emissions testing' is a total inertia weight of all rotating components in the chassis dynamometer. Total Inertia weight is a inertia device simulates translational and rotational kinetic energy of a traveling vehicle which is equivalent to the mass of the car. DIW is an important technical indicator, whether it is accurate or not will affect the calibration of all technical characteristics of 'chassis dynamometers for automobile emissions testing'. In this paper,first of all, we introduce a new method to measure the Dynamometer Inertia Weight, that is, coast-down testing with twice constant-force loading method, and we derivate a formula to calculate the Dynamometer Inertia Weight from kinetic energy conservation law. Secondly, we have done a lot of coast-down testings with twice constant-force load method. After analyzing the data, we found out the factors that affect the testing processes and the accuracy of testing results. Finally, after comparing twice constant-force loading method with the take-down flywheel method and twice constant-power loading method, we know that this coast-down testing with twice constant-force loading method is better than other methods in stability and repeatability and testing data will be more accurate. It's a accurate and convenient way to measure the DIW of 'chassis dynamometers for automobile emissions testing'.