Microwave Photonics Optical processing of microwave signals

Given the availability of optoelectronic components operating at very high frequencies (> 20 GHz), it is now possible to envisage microwave signal processing architectures covering the following functions: antenna control architectures, delay lines, microwave signal filtering functions, spectral analysis.

Microwave signal filtering is a basic building block in the architecture of electromagnetic sensor transmission/reception chains for telecommunications and radar systems. Whether they are rejection or bandpass filters, filter functions increase in complexity according to the number and frequency range of the signals to be filtered, and their respective bandwidths. In the early 2000s, a great deal of research was carried out into optical architectures capable of implementing filtering functions, with the main objectives being performance in terms of frequency selectivity, architectural simplification and bandwidth. The main challenge of the 2000s has been to develop optical architectures with negative coefficients, enabling us to overcome the main limitations of optical architectures. In this article, we describe these architectures and review the different types of optical architectures for filtering microwave signals and the signal processing functions associated with them.

At the end of the article, readers will find a glossary and a table of the symbols and acronyms used.