Patent ID: 7660491

Claim:
A method of using a fiber optic link, comprising: providing a remote site; providing an antenna at the remote site; providing a phase modulator at the remote site; receiving radio frequency signals with the antenna; providing the radio frequency signals from the antenna to the phase modulator at the remote site; providing an electronics bay at a distance from the remote site; providing a receiver in the electronics bay; providing a laser; providing a first optical fiber between the laser and the phase modulator; providing an optical filter at the receiver in the electronics bay; providing a photodetector at the receiver in the electronics bay; directing light from the laser into and through the first optical fiber to the phase modulator at the remote site; providing a second optical fiber between the remote site and the receiver; phase modulating the light by the radio frequency signals from the antenna; transmitting the phase modulated light from the phase modulator directly to the optical filter through the second optical fiber and to the photodetector at the receiver; tuning the optical filter to remove artifacts not from the radio frequency and effectively suppress intermodulation distortion of the phase modulated signal; filtering the phase modulated light in the optical filter; providing the filtered phase modulated light to the photodetector; and producing a radio frequency signal output from the photodetector with suppressed intermodulation distortion spurious terms.