Low-Noise Millimeter-Wave Down-Conversion Technology for Chip-Scaled Optical Clocks

This article reports on a millimeter-wave (MM-wave) signal down-conversion system with low phase noise for chip-scaled optical clocks. The system utilizes analog regenerative frequency division, low-noise fractional frequency division, and phase-locked frequency division techniques to down-convert a...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Shuai Li, Lulu Yan, Enrang Zheng, Zhijing Du, Jun Ruan, Shougang Zhang
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Sensors
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Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/4/1041
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Summary:This article reports on a millimeter-wave (MM-wave) signal down-conversion system with low phase noise for chip-scaled optical clocks. The system utilizes analog regenerative frequency division, low-noise fractional frequency division, and phase-locked frequency division techniques to down-convert a 100 GHz MM-wave signal to 100 MHz with phase noise of −117 dBc/Hz @100 Hz, −133 dBc/Hz @1 kHz, and 10 MHz with phase noise of −124 dBc/Hz @100 Hz and −143 dBc/Hz @1 kHz. The frequency stability of the signal down-converted to 100 MHz is 5.0 × 10<sup>−15</sup> @ 1 s and 1.8 × 10<sup>−16</sup> @ 1000 s, while the frequency stability of the 10 MHz signal is 5.7 × 10<sup>−14</sup> @ 1 s and 5.9 × 10<sup>−16</sup> @1000 s, both of which decrease to the 10<sup>−16</sup> level at 10,000 s. This down-conversion system meets the frequency conversion requirements of state-of-the-art chip-based optical clocks and micro-cavity optical combs.
ISSN:1424-8220