Photonic-Assisted Microwave Frequency Measurement With Adjustable Channel Bandwidth Based on Spectrum-Controlled Brillouin Phase Shift

• Published in: IEEE photonics journal Vol. 13; no. 6; pp. 1 - 5
• Main Authors: Wang, Di, Zhang, Xindong, Liu, Shuang, Yang, Zhangyi, Du, Cong, Li, Jiaqi, Dong, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Piscataway IEEE 01.12.2021; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Bandwidth; Bandwidths; Error analysis; Frequency measurement; Frequency modulation; frequency-to-phase-slope mapping; Mapping; Microwave frequencies; Microwave photonics; Optical frequency; Phase shift; Probes; Radio frequency; RF signals; Scattering; Simulation; Spectrum allocation; stimulated brillouin scattering
• ISSN: 1943-0655; 1943-0655; 1943-0647
• DOI: 10.1109/JPHOT.2021.3123274

A photonics-based channel bandwidth tunable microwave frequency measurement (MFM) is analyzed and verified, which is implemented based on the principle of the frequency-to-phase-slope mapping (FTPSM) in stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS). The spectrum-controlled Brillouin phase shift curve is created by using an optical frequency comb (OFC) pump instead of a single pump. As a result, the Brillouin phase shift response is superimposed to further realize a flexible and adjustable measurement bandwidth. Meanwhile, thanks to the relationship between the OFC pump and the unknown signal, the frequency measurement can be achieved by the property of monotonous frequency-to-phase-slope mapping. A proof-of-concept experiment is performed to verify the feasibility of the approach. By changing the number of OFC lines, the channel bandwidths of 500, 700, or 900 MHz are demonstrated, with a measurement error lower than 35 MHz. We believe that this FTPSM-based MFM system is a promising solution for radio frequency (RF) channelized receiver.