Advancements in survivable flexible microwave links

The authors describe the developments and applications in fiber optics that significantly increase the overall system capabilities and survivability of microwave links for use in communication information transmission, and sensor system, including radar and electronic warfare systems. They also discuss the system benefits and added flexibility that cannot be achieved with conventional electronic and microwave technologies. It is noted that research and development efforts have produced significant improvements in the performance of semiconductor laser diodes and photodiodes for analog fiber-optic links. Direct-modulation bandwidths have increased to over 10 GHz, with improvements in signal linearity and increases in signal-to-noise ratios and dynamic range. New high-bandwidth analog fiber-optic links were developed specifically for microwave systems. Production systems based on the prototype results have been developed and are now in operational use