Integrated Ultra-high Performance Oscillator based on a Crystalline Kerr Comb

Photonic techniques for generation of RF signals provide a desirable alternative solution to the problems, adding new features to the oscillator, such as ultra-low phase noise [1], low power consumption, and small size. In this DARPA SBIR program, team of OEwaves Inc. and UC Davis will demonstrate an integrated 10 GHz oscillator based on hyper-parametric optical oscillations in crystalline whispering gallery mode (WGM) resonators [2]. These resonators are characterized with very-high Q [3], are compact and environmentally stable, and are ideal for realization of miniature, high performance, RF photonic oscillators operating from X- to W- frequency bands and beyond. The proposed approach will ultimately produce oscillators consisting of a semiconductor laser, resonator, and high speed detector integrated in a chip-scale package. The proposed oscillator is innovative in the sense that it exhibits outstanding spectral purity in broad frequency range while keeping the SWaP small. This is achieved by locking the frequency difference of two optical modes having significantly different environmental sensitivity, to an ordinary miniature quartz oscillator. In such a system, the stability of the resultant X-band signal can be at least seven orders of magnitude better than the stability of the quartz oscillator [4].