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A generalized array of N parallel phase modulators electrically driven with a progressive 2 π/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.