Photonic instantaneous microwave frequency measurement based on frequency-phase mapping with high precision

Abstract

This paper presents an instantaneous microwave frequency measurement scheme based on a frequency-phase mapping technique. In our scheme, a low-frequency (LF) reference signal and two microwave signals with a relative time delay are modulated on the optical carriers via two dual-parallel Mach–Zehnder modulators. The generated electrical signal has the same frequency as that of the LF reference signal, but with a phase shift, which depends on the microwave signal frequency and the time delay. Therefore, a linear frequency-phase mapping function with a high slope is constructed, which improves the accuracy of the whole frequency measurement range. The scheme has a compact structure without an optical filter and polarization devices, which enhances the long-term stability of the system. The simulation shows that our scheme has a 4.1–40 GHz frequency measurement range with errors less than ±0.04 GHz.