Optical analog link using a linearized modulator

Many of the applications of optical analog links, such as antenna remoting and phased array antenna control, involve bandwidths of less than one octave. In these cases, the modulator may be optimized without the constraint of minimizing second-order distortion. This leads to a simple linearized modulator design that minimizes third-order distortion while providing a link noise figure as low as a link with a standard interferometric modulator using the same input laser power. The average detector current (bias-point photocurrent) can be kept low to accommodate small-area microwave detectors and to minimize the effects of optical intensity noise. The modulator consists of two standard Mach-Zehnder interferometric modulators (MZs) in series.