Generalized Mach–Zehnder interferometer architectures for radio frequency translation and multiplication: Suppression of unwanted harmonics by design

A generalized array of N parallel phase modulators electrically driven with a progressive 2π/N phase shift is analyzed. For N-even, the equivalence of this configuration to parallel Mach–Zehnder architectures, and specifically the equivalence for N=4 to a dual parallel Mach–Zehnder modulator is shown. A simple approach to the design of this architecture that determines the static optical phase shifts required in each of the N parallel arms to suppress unwanted harmonics while maximizing the harmonics of interest is developed. The proposed design approach is validated by numerical simulations of N=4 and N=6 architectures with properly determined optical phase shifts. Optical single-side-band modulation (lower and upper) and frequency multiplication of an electrical drive signal with high suppression of unwanted harmonics is shown to be achievable. •A design approach for suppression of unwanted harmonics in parallel phase modulators is proposed.2πN phase shift.•Circuit architecture comprises N-parallel phase modulators driven with progressive phase shifts.•Analysis for frequency translation and multiplication is demonstrated by numerical simulations.