Opto-Acoustic Oscillator Using Silicon Mems Optical Modulator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a silicon MEMS-based narrow-band optical modulator integrated into an opto-electronic oscillator, achieving a 236.22 MHz opto-acoustic oscillator with low phase noise.

Contribution

It introduces an improved electro-mechanical transducer for silicon MEMS optical modulators and applies it in an opto-electronic oscillator to generate stable high-frequency signals.

Findings

Achieved 236.22 MHz oscillation frequency.

Phase noise of -68 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset.

Enhanced modulation depth and filter performance.

Abstract

We show operation of a silicon MEMS based narrow-band optical modulator with large modulation depth by improving the electro-mechanical transducer. We demonstrate an application of the narrowband optical modulator as both the filter and optical modulator in an opto-electronic oscillator loop to obtain a 236.22 MHz Opto-Acoustic Oscillator (OAO) with phase noise of -68 dBc/Hz at 1 kHz offset.