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Microwave photonics combines two worlds

Nature Photonics volume 1, pages 319–330 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Microwave photonics, which brings together the worlds of radiofrequency engineering and optoelectronics, has attracted great interest from both the research community and the commercial sector over the past 30 years and is set to have a bright future. The technology makes it possible to have functions in microwave systems that are complex or even not directly possible in the radiofrequency domain and also creates new opportunities for telecommunication networks. Here we introduce the technology to the photonics community and summarize recent research and important applications.

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Figure 1: Schematic highlighting the fundamental concept of an analog microwave photonic link.
Figure 2: A schematic showing an example of a commercially available HFR system: Andrew Corporation's ION (intelligent optical network) family of optical distributed antenna systems.
Figure 3: Schematic highlighting three possible schemes for radio signal transport between the central office and remote access point in HFR systems.
Figure 4: Schematic showing a fibre-optic prism with a single laser to feed numerous phased-array elements68.
Figure 5: Schematics of RF signal processing.
Figure 6: A reconfigurable and tunable microwave photonic filter using a laser source array and a dispersive linearly chirped FBG device.
Figure 7: Block diagram of the photonic stretch processor.
Figure 8: The photonic AWG comprising the spectral shaping of a supercontinuum source followed by a wavelength to time mapping130,135.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Institute of Telecommunications and Multimedia Applications, Edificio 8G, Ciudad Politecnica de la Innovacion, Valencia, Valencia, 46023, Spain

    José Capmany

  2. Pharad LLC, 797 Cromwell Park Drive, Suite 5, Glen Burnie, 21061, Maryland, USA

    Dalma Novak

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Correspondence to José Capmany.

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Capmany, J., Novak, D. Microwave photonics combines two worlds. Nature Photon 1, 319–330 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2007.89

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