Photonic-assisted microwave frequency measurement with higher resolution and tunable range

A photonic-assisted approach to microwave frequency measurement is proposed based on frequency-to-power mapping with the help of the so-called amplitude comparison function. The key component is a dual-output Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) working at chirped modulation. The proposed scheme is characterized as having simplicity, higher resolution, and tunable measurement range. Owing to experimental constraint, an equivalent experiment has been carried out using a common single-output MZM at different bias points to prove the concept.