Microwave Photonics

Abstract

We review the fundamental principles, components, functionalities, and applications of microwave photonics. This symbiotic field, which exploits the best of the radio frequency and photonic worlds, is expected to have a significant role in various scenarios where wireless and wired signals must coexist and be interfaced. This not only cover the future 5G telecommunications but also the emerging field of the Internet of Things and others such as biophotonics and broadband instrumentation.

Opto-electronic cross-phase tuneable system based on cascaded intensity modulators

“…Microwave photonics aims to translate the inherent benefits of optical systems (mostly, large bandwidth and low distribution losses) into the microwave domain. Several functionalities such as: signal generation, processing, filtering and sampling have been demonstrated already [13][14][15]. A variety of work has been carried out for beamforming solutions with further benefits such as broad tuneability and squint free steering for wideband signals.…”