Investigation on the Phase Noise and EVM of Digitally Modulated Millimeter Wave Signal in WDM Optical Heterodyning System

In this paper, theoretical model on phase noise in self-heterodyning optical system for mmW generation is proposed. Phase noise is impacted by optical path difference between both optical tones and laser source coherence time, but also by RF generators phase noise. Phase noise measurements of the mmW signal and RF sources have been realized to discuss the validity of the model. Based both on the theoretical approach and on the phase noise characterizations, an error vector magnitude (EVM) model is developed to quantify the impact of the optical self-heterodyning output phase noise on up-converted broadband digital signal (ECMA 387 standard).