High Resolution Microwave Frequency Measurement Using a Dual-Parallel Mach–Zehnder Modulator

Author

Hualin Zhang ; Shilong Pan

Author_Institution

Microwave Photonics Res. Lab., Nanjing Univ. of Aeronaut. & Astronaut., Nanjing, China

Volume

23

Issue

11

fYear

2013

fDate

Nov. 2013

Firstpage

623

Lastpage

625

Abstract

A novel microwave frequency measurement scheme based on a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) is proposed and demonstrated. By simply adjusting the bias voltage of the DPMZM, the measurement range can be divided into several parts and each part has very high resolution. Thus, the system can be used in a two-stage instantaneous frequency measurement scheme, in which the first stage coarsely determines the frequency band of the intercepted microwave signal, and then the proposed scheme measures the frequency with high resolution. An experiment is performed. Instantaneous frequency measurement with a frequency measurement range of 2.3-18.7 GHz and a measurement resolution of ±0.20 GHz is achieved.

Keywords

frequency measurement; microwave measurement; modulators; DPMZM; dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator; frequency -0.20 GHz; frequency 0.20 GHz; frequency 2.3 GHz to 18.7 GHz; high resolution microwave frequency measurement scheme; intercepted microwave signal; two-stage instantaneous frequency measurement scheme, the; Extraterrestrial measurements; Frequency measurement; Microwave frequencies; Photonics; Voltage measurement; Wavelength measurement; Dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPMZM); instantaneous frequency measurements (IFM); microwave photonics;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microwave and Wireless Components Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1531-1309

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LMWC.2013.2280638

Filename

6609114