Six-port optical hybrid

Six-port hybrid devices have been used for microwave and millimeter-wave detection systems since the mid-1990s and are a key component for coherent receivers. In principle, the six-port device consists of linear dividers and combiners interconnected in such a way that four different vectorial additions of a reference signal (LO) and the signal to be detected are obtained. The levels of the four output signals are detected by balanced receivers. By applying suitable base-band signal processing algorithms, the amplitude and phase of the unknown signal can be determined.

For optical coherent detection, the six-port 90° optical hybrid would mix the incoming signal with the four quadratural states associated with the reference signal in the complex-field space. The optical hybrid would then deliver the four light signals to two pairs of balanced detectors. See Figure 1 for block diagram of a coherent receiver.

September 30, 2011

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