Microwave signals carry important intelligence information in electronic warfare. Hence, the measurement of microwave signals plays a very important role. Traditional electronic microwave measurement systems are not appropriate for the instantaneous frequency measurement (IFM) of high-speed signals. A simple and low-cost photonic approach to the IFM based on frequency-to-power mapping is proposed and demonstrated with a reasonable resolution. The measurement is performed on account of a double Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM), single-mode fiber (SMF), photodetector (PD), and signal processing. The scheme using four wavelengths achieves resolutions of ±0.1 and ±0.09 GHz respectively for the 15.8–18.4 and 18.4−21.2 GHz frequency measurement ranges. Therefore, the scheme is a broad prospects method for high-resolution IFM. Moreover, it is of great importance for applications in electronic warfare and high-resolution sensor systems.
