A signal transmission model for broadband microwave photonic link

Abstract

In order to better utilize the broadband advantage of microwave photonic radar, a signal transmission model is proposed to analyze the transmission of electric signal and optical signal on microwave photonic link. In this model, signal transmission is divided into three processes: electro-optical conversion, optical signal process, and optical-electrical conversion. For each process, the connection of devices is established by the radar design, and the input output relationship of each device is modeled by the parameters. And for each device, its effect on the performance of the microwave photonic link can be calculated by its parameters. Therefore, this signal transmission model is able to help researchers to design and analyze the microwave photonic radar. Proven by the experimental results, this signal transmission model can explain the important phenomena of the microwave photonic link, and can effectively analyze the influence of each device on performance of microwave photonic link.