Microwave Photonic Multi-Mode Injection-Locked Frequency Divider With a Wide Operational Range Based on an Optoelectronic Oscillator

We propose and implement a microwave photonic multi-mode injection-locked frequency divider (ILFD) with a wide frequency operational range based on an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO). In the OEO, a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and a photodetector (PD) are employed to construct a frequency multiplier to achieve an N-1 times frequency multiplication, which is then mixed with an external injection signal at an electrical mixer in the OEO loop. By adjusting the round-trip gain and time delay of the OEO loop, a radio frequency (RF) signal with a frequency that is 1/N that of the injection signal is generated, thus N times frequency division is achieved. Theoretical analysis and experimental verification are conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed ILFD. The results demonstrate that the system can divide a RF signal from 2.6 to 20.8 GHz to 1.3 to 1.95 GHz with different frequency division factors ranging from 2 to 13. A significant improvement in phase noise of 35.11 dB is also obtained at a frequency offset of 100 kHz when the frequency division factor is 13.