A Compact Multifrequency Measurement System Based on an Integrated Frequency-Scanning Generator

Abstract

A compact multifrequency measurement system based on frequency-to-time mapping technology is proposed and experimentally demonstrated using an integrated frequency scanning signal generator. The relationship between the input microwave frequency and the time difference of a pair of pulses is established to realize the frequency information mapping to the time information. As a main part in the proposed frequency measurement system, the frequency-scanning signal is generated by heterodyning of two lasers with the monolithic integrated laser array, of which one is modulated on a saw-tooth signal. In the proposed frequency measurement system, it can measure single/multiple frequency microwave signals with a large bandwidth for high resolution and flexible tunable measurement range for multifrequency band. In the experimental demonstration, the single frequency measurement errors are less than 90 MHz within the measurement range from 4 to 12 GHz. For two-tone signal, the measurement resolution reaches about 150 MHz.

Keywords

• photonic microwave frequency measurement
• frequency-to-time mapping
• heterodyning