The impact of the photodiode on the nonlinearity of microwave photonic links

A new theory model for the nonlinearity of the commercial PIN photodiodes (PDs) is presented and verified by experiments in this article. The gain and the third-order spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR3) of a basic microwave photonic link have also been studied including the nonlinearity of the PD. Numerical studies indicate that the nonlinearity of PD decreases the practical microwave photonic links' performance. Compared with ideal PD links, the maximum values of signal gain and SFDR3 in practical links deteriorate by 1.7 and 3 dB, respectively, at various biased points for modulator. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 53:2325–2327, 2011; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/mop.26268