93 GHz Wireless Transmission based on a Fully Packaged mm-Wave Band Optical Clock Generator

The mm-wave frequency spectrum offers the possibility to afford the increasing demand of high data-rate communication links. Microwave-photonics techniques can be advantageously used for reconfigurable generation of very high frequency clocks with superior phase noise performance with respect to purely electrical techniques, with the additional functionality of remote distribution of the signal through fiber-optics or free-space optic links. Here we present a fully packaged optoelectronic assembly of a CMOS-compatible silicon-based photonic integrated circuit for optical frequency comb generation with reconfigurable free spectral range given by an RF driving local oscillator. Through optical filtering and photodetection, a 98 GHz electrical clock has been derived and employed for successful 93 GHz wireless transmission of complex modulation formats carrying up to 4 Gb/s data rate, demonstrating the suitability of the solution for 5G and next generation 6G mobile networks.