A photonic transmission link with enhanced dynamic range by incorporating phase shifters in dual drive dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator

A linearization scheme is proposed for microwave photonic link to enlarge spurious free dynamic range using a dual-electrode dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM). This scheme employs phase control method to improve performance of the link by adjusting phase of radio frequency (RF) signals and bias voltages of optical modulator. Optical single sideband modulation is achieved through sub-modulators of dual parallel MZM which increases efficiency of the link. The simulated results show that third order intermodulation distortion is suppressed by 28 dB when the input RF signals are 9.1 and 9.5 GHz and noise floor is at −161 dBm/Hz. The spurious free dynamic range is also improved by 12.6 dB.