Microwave opto-electronics in Europe

Recent European work on components, subsystems, and applications of microwave optoelectronics is reviewed, with particular emphasis on areas, such as coherent techniques and the use of optical amplifiers, which are likely to have a strong impact on new system design. Microwave optoelectronic components capable of operation well into the millimeter-wave region have been developed to commercial availability by a number of European manufacturers. Optical amplifiers seem likely to make microwave bandwidth networks with excellent signal to noise ratio a practical reality. Techniques for the generation of coherent optical signals have advanced substantially, so that it seems likely that coherent processing will become the preferred choice for optical beamforming in phase array antennas and many other signal processing applications.<>