Continuous wideband spectrum analysis over 10 GHz bandwidth with 61 dBc spur-free dynamic range

Merkel, K.D.; Bekker, Scott H.; Stiffler, Colton; Traxinger, Aaron S.; Woidtke, Alex J.; Sellin, P. B.; Chase, Michael D.; Babbitt, W.R.; Barber, Zeb W.; Harrington, Calvin

doi:10.1109/mwp.2013.6724080

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One then has several milliseconds -the memory lifetime -to retrieve the signal components with a fast sweeping read-out laser. This approach is extensively studied for the spectrum analysis of broadband RF signals over 20 GHz, with sub-MHz resolution and sub-millisecond refresh time [9][10][11][12][13], and has even been upgraded to direction finding [14,15]. To reach higher time resolution, this architecture faces two limitations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

20 GHz instantaneous bandwidth RF spectrum analyzer with high time-resolution

Berger

Schwarz

Molin

et al. 2014

Microwave Photonics (MWP) and the 2014 9th Asia-Pacific Microwave Photonics Conference (APMP) 2014 International Topical Meetin

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We report on the experimental demonstration of a multi-gigahertz bandwidth RF spectrum analyzer exhibiting a resolution below 20 MHz, based on spectral hole burning in a rare-earth ion-doped crystal. To be compatible with demanding real-time spectrum monitoring applications, our demonstrator is designed to reach a high time resolution. For this purpose, we implemented the so-called "rainbow" architecture in which the spectral components of the incoming signal are angularly separated by the crystal, and are then acquired with a pixelated photodetector. The Tm 3+ :YAG crystal is programmed with a semiconductor DFB laser which frequency scan is servocontrolled and synchronized with the angular scan of a resonant galvanometric mirror, while a high-speed camera is used to acquire the spectra. In the perspective of future implementation within a system, the crystal is cooled below 4 K with a closedcycle cryostat. With this setup, we have been able to monitor and record the spectrum of complex microwave signals over an instantaneous bandwidth above 20 GHz, with a time resolution below 100 µs, 400 resolvable frequency components and a probability of intercept of 100 %.

show abstract