Photonic-Assisted Scanning Receivers for Microwave Frequency Measurement

Abstract

We present a novel technique based on matrix pencil assisted deconvolution to improve the measurement resolution in scanning receiver systems for microwave frequency measurements. By modeling the scanning receiver output as the cross-correlation of the input modulated signal with the filter's spectral response and applying the matrix pencil algorithm to convolve the detected optical signal at the receiver output, our technique offers precise estimations of both the frequency and power information of microwave signals with an improved measurement resolution. A multi-tone microwave signal measurement based on an optical filter is experimentally demonstrated, showing a significant measurement resolution reduction from 1 GHz to 0.4 GHz for two radio frequency (RF) tones, which is only about 30.2% of the optical filter bandwidth.

Review of microwave frequency measurement circuits

“…The most advantage of using MP in an MFM system is achieving high frequency and bandwidth and because of this, it becomes prone to future terahertz communications. This technique typically uses a March-Zehnder modulator to achieve frequency identification [34][35][36][37][38][39] with typical resolutions of up to 1.2 GHz [38]. Other designs use an electro-optical polarization modulator [40,41], and an RF photonic Hilbert transformer [42,64].…”

“…MFM performed with MP techniques operates in a wide frequency range from 0.6 to 42.8 GHz [34][35][36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. Frequency-amplitude mapping is the most effective method to obtain the unknown microwave signal`s frequency.…”

“…The Photodetectors (PD) and ADC circuits provide the reading of the unknown signal. MP has the advantage of having a high frequency of operation with large bandwidths, low loss, and immunity to electromagnetic interference [37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44].…”

Special Issue “Microwave Photonics 2018”

“…The present Special Issue gathers eight papers reporting state-of-the-art research progress and breakthroughs accomplished by internationally recognized research teams in the field of microwave photonics through the year 2018. The reported research results, distributed in two research papers [11,12] and six review papers [13][14][15][16][17][18], cover several of the specific strategic areas outlined in Section 1.…”

“…A new microwave frequency measurement technique based on matrix pencil assisted deconvolution is reported in [11] to improve the measurement resolution in scanning receiver systems. In this article [11], a multi-tone microwave signal measurement based on an optical filter is experimentally demonstrated, showing significant measurement resolution reduction of both frequency and power information. The other research article presents a detailed investigation on the cause of ripples in the frequency response of a microwave photonic phase shifter [12].…”