Abstract
The conversion loss of the harmonic mixer was 70 dB at 16.01 GHz. The phase noise degradation of the phase-locked 16.01-GHz signal at 5-kHz offset measured with respect to the 1.0-GHz synthesizer signal for driving the laser diode was 30 dB. A GaAs:Cr photoconductive switch activated by 30- ps optical pulses from a gain-switched laser diode (A = 0.79 um) was used as a harmonic mixer to optoelectronically phase-lock microwave signals up to 18.01 GHz. © 1992, IEEE. All rights reserved.