{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,2,21]],"date-time":"2026-02-21T08:31:18Z","timestamp":1771662678567,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":34,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"8","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,9]],"date-time":"2023-08-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1691539200000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Photonics"],"abstract":"<jats:p>A novel reconfigurable Microwave Photonics (MWP) mixer is presented in this paper, which can be configured to work as a frequency hopper, ASK modulator and phase shifter. This mixer is based on a cascaded Mach\u2013Zehnder Modulator (MZM) structure. A general nonlinear analytical model for the structure is presented. This model is platform free, which means it can be applied to several MWP and integrated MWP platforms. Based on the analytical model, the performance of the structure and output results, such as the optical and electrical spectrum of the structure, are derived in mathematical closed-form expressions. The results of the presented analytical model are compared and evaluated with the results obtained from the simulation to prove the correctness of the analytical model. The presented structure has a simple form, which can be fabricated at a low cost. In addition, according to the obtained results from the analytical model, there is no need to change the arrangement of the structure to operate in any of the mentioned configurations, and the desired function is achievable only by changing the bias voltage of the modulators at the desired frequency.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/photonics10080916","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,9]],"date-time":"2023-08-09T10:30:48Z","timestamp":1691577048000},"page":"916","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["A Novel Reconfigurable Nonlinear Cascaded MZM Mixer, Amplitude Shift Key Modulator (ASK), Frequency Hopping and Phase Shifter"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-1231-8601","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ebrahim","family":"Darabi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"IoT and Signal Processing Research Group, ICT Research Institute, Faculty of Intelligent Systems Engineering and Data Science, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr 7516913817, Iran"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7583-5593","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Heidar","family":"Keshavarz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"IoT and Signal Processing Research Group, ICT Research Institute, Faculty of Intelligent Systems Engineering and Data Science, Persian Gulf University, Bushehr 7516913817, Iran"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4664-9238","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Paulo","family":"Monteiro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Instituto de Telecomunica\u00e7\u00f5es, Universidade de Aveiro, 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"319","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2007.89","article-title":"Microwave photonics combines two worlds","volume":"1","author":"Capmany","year":"2007","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1840","DOI":"10.1109\/22.954797","article-title":"Optically sampled analog-to-digital converters","volume":"49","author":"Juodawlkis","year":"2001","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"21","article-title":"A tutorial on microwave photonic filters","volume":"24","author":"Capmany","year":"2006","journal-title":"J. Light. Technol."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"186","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2011.350","article-title":"Comb-based radiofrequency photonic filters with rapid tunability and high selectivity","volume":"6","author":"Supradeepa","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"234","DOI":"10.1117\/12.259009","article-title":"Photonics for phased-array antennas","volume":"2844","author":"Loo","year":"1996","journal-title":"Photonics Radio Freq."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1800350","DOI":"10.1002\/lpor.201800350","article-title":"Photonics-based microwave frequency mixing: Methodology and applications","volume":"14","author":"Tang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Laser Photonics Rev."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1003","DOI":"10.1109\/22.588620","article-title":"A wide-band microwave photonic phase and frequency shifter","volume":"45","author":"Winnall","year":"1997","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"117","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2009.266","article-title":"Ultrabroad-bandwidth arbitrary radiofrequency waveform generation with a silicon photonic chip-based spectral shaper","volume":"4","author":"Khan","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3219","DOI":"10.1109\/JLT.2007.906820","article-title":"Photonic generation of ultrawideband signals","volume":"25","author":"Yao","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. Lightwave Technol."},{"key":"ref_10","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106734","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optlaseng.2021.106734","article-title":"High numerical aperture and large focusing efficiency metalens based on multilayer transmitarray elements","volume":"147","author":"Liu","year":"2021","journal-title":"Opt. Lasers Eng."},{"key":"ref_11","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"014003","DOI":"10.35848\/1882-0786\/ac4534","article-title":"Broadband, large-numerical-aperture and high-efficiency microwave metalens by using a double-layer transmissive metasurface","volume":"15","author":"Liu","year":"2022","journal-title":"Appl. Phys. Express"},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"728","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2011.293","article-title":"The optoelectronic oscillator","volume":"5","author":"Maleki","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1725","DOI":"10.1364\/JOSAB.13.001725","article-title":"Optoelectronic microwave oscillator","volume":"13","author":"Yao","year":"1996","journal-title":"JOSA B"},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"64","DOI":"10.1038\/nature10067","article-title":"A graphene-based broadband optical modulator","volume":"474","author":"Liu","year":"2011","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"554","DOI":"10.1038\/nphoton.2012.147","article-title":"Regenerative oscillation and four-wave mixing in graphene optoelectronics","volume":"6","author":"Gu","year":"2012","journal-title":"Nat. Photonics"},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3334","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optcom.2010.04.064","article-title":"Vector dissipative solitons in graphene mode locked fiber lasers","volume":"283","author":"Zhang","year":"2010","journal-title":"Opt. Commun."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"012104","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.90.012104","article-title":"Quantifying the nonlinearity of a quantum oscillator","volume":"90","author":"Paris","year":"2014","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A Mol. Opt. Phys."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1140\/epjqt\/s40507-015-0029-x","article-title":"Nonlinearity and nonclassicality in a nanomechanical resonator","volume":"2","author":"Teklu","year":"2015","journal-title":"EPJ Quantum Technol."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"050303","DOI":"10.1103\/PhysRevA.87.050303","article-title":"Homodyne detection as a near-optimum receiver for phase-shift-keyed binary communication in the presence of phase diffusion","volume":"87","author":"Olivares","year":"2013","journal-title":"Phys. Rev. A Mol. Opt. Phys."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"3580","DOI":"10.1109\/JLT.2012.2223197","article-title":"Microwave photonic downconverter with high conversion efficiency","volume":"30","author":"Chan","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Lightwave Technol."},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2318","DOI":"10.1109\/22.414584","article-title":"A low-loss downconverting analog fiber-optic link","volume":"43","author":"Gopalakrishnan","year":"1995","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Microw. Theory Tech."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7698","DOI":"10.1109\/JLT.2021.3126661","article-title":"Silicon Photonic-Based Integrated Microwave Photonic Reconfigurable Mixer, Phase Shifter, and Frequency Doubler","volume":"39","author":"Keshavarz","year":"2021","journal-title":"J. Light. Tech."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5500909","DOI":"10.1109\/JPHOT.2016.2571959","article-title":"Microwave photonic frequency conversion with high conversion efficiency and elimination of dispersion-induced power fading","volume":"8","author":"Zhang","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Photonics J."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4519","DOI":"10.1364\/OE.25.004519","article-title":"Microwave photonic phase-tunable mixer","volume":"25","author":"Jiang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Opt. Express"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"33","DOI":"10.1364\/OL.42.000033","article-title":"Reconfigurable microwave photonic mixer with minimized path separation and large suppression of mixing spurs","volume":"42","author":"Tang","year":"2017","journal-title":"Opt. Lett."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"126224","DOI":"10.1016\/j.optcom.2020.126224","article-title":"A filterless reconfigurable frequency mixer based on a wideband photonic microwave phase shifter","volume":"475","author":"Li","year":"2020","journal-title":"Opt. Commun."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Urick, V.J., Williams, K.J., and McKinney, J.D. (2015). Fundamentals of Microwave Photonics, John Wiley & Sons.","DOI":"10.1002\/9781119029816"},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Abramowitz, M., and Stegun, I.A. (1972). Handbook of Mathematical Functions with Formulas, Graphs, and Mathematical Tables."},{"key":"ref_29","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5501816","DOI":"10.1109\/JPHOT.2020.3006628","article-title":"Bias-Free Silicon-Based Optical Single-Sideband Modulator without 2nd-Order Sideband","volume":"12","author":"Keshavarz","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Photonics J."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Cox, C.H. (2006). Analog Optical Links: Theory and Practice, Cambridge University Press."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Liu, Q., and Fok, M.P. (2020). Ultrafast and wideband microwave photonic frequency-hopping systems: A review. Appl. Sci., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/app10020521"},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"4483","DOI":"10.1364\/OL.37.004483","article-title":"Tunable and wideband microwave photonic phase shifter based on a single-sideband polarization modulator and a polarizer","volume":"37","author":"Pan","year":"2012","journal-title":"Opt. Lett."},{"key":"ref_33","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"5501114","DOI":"10.1109\/JPHOT.2016.2593584","article-title":"Dual-polarization dual-parallel MZM and optical phase shifter based microwave photonic phase controller","volume":"8","author":"Niu","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE Photonics J."},{"key":"ref_34","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"176","DOI":"10.1109\/JMW.2020.3034583","article-title":"Microwave photonic array radars","volume":"1","author":"Pan","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE J. Microw."}],"container-title":["Photonics"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6732\/10\/8\/916\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T20:28:45Z","timestamp":1760128125000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2304-6732\/10\/8\/916"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,9]]},"references-count":34,"journal-issue":{"issue":"8","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,8]]}},"alternative-id":["photonics10080916"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/photonics10080916","relation":{},"ISSN":["2304-6732"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2304-6732","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,8,9]]}}}