Microwave frequency measurement using a silicon integrated microring resonator

Photonics-assisted instantaneous frequency measurement of a microwave signal using a silicon integrated microring resonator (MRR) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The frequency of a microwave signal has a unique relationship with the power ratio between the two microwave signals at the outputs of two microwave photonic filters (MPF) with complementary frequency responses. The key device to implement the MPFs is a silicon integrated MMR, which is employed to convert a phase-modulated optical signal to an intensity-modulated optical signal by placing two optical carriers at the complementary slopes of the MRR. For a given frequency measurement range and resolution, an MRR is designed and fabricated, and its use for instantaneous microwave frequency (IMF) measurement is implemented. For the fabricated MRR, an IMF measurement range of 14-25 GHz with a measurement accuracy of +/- 0.2 GHz is achieved. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

In this paper, a photonics-assisted method for instantaneously measuring the frequency of a microwave signal using a silicon integrated microring resonator (MRR) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The unique relationship between the frequency of a microwave signal and the power ratio between two microwave signals at the outputs of complementary frequency-response microwave photonic filters (MPFs) is utilized. By employing a silicon integrated MRR as the key device to implement the MPFs, the phase-modulated optical signal is converted to an intensity-modulated optical signal. The designed and fabricated MRR achieves an instantaneous microwave frequency (IMF) measurement range of 14-25 GHz with a measurement accuracy of +/- 0.2 GHz.