Predistortion technique for RF-photonic generation of high-power ultrawideband arbitrary waveforms

By employing an RF-photonic arbitrary waveform generator, the authors experimentally obtained complex high-power RF waveforms with spectra spanning more than a decade and voltage amplitudes of more than 13 V in a system limited by a gain ripple of up to 5 dB and phase distortion of over 200/spl deg/. A spectral predistortion technique tailored to photonically assisted waveform generators that can overcome substantial RF amplifier gain ripple and phase distortion in order to generate high-power (> 30 dBm) ultrawideband arbitrary RF waveforms is presented.