Microwave Photonics for Modern Radar Systems

The emerging new concepts and technologies based on microwave photonics have led to an ever-increasing interest in developing innovative radar systems with a net gain in functionality,bandwidth /resolution,size,mass,complexity and cost when compared with the traditional implementations. This paper describes the techniques developed in the last few years in microwave photonics that might revolutionize the way to design multifunction radar systems,with an emphasis on the recent advances in optoelectronic oscillators( OEOs),arbitrary waveform generation,photonic mixing,phase coding,filtering,beamforming,analog-to-digital conversion,and stable radio-frequency signal transfer. Challenges in implementation of these components and subsystems for meeting the technique requirements of the multifunction radar applications are discussed.

Recent advances in microwave photonics

Microwave photonics （MWP） is an interdisci- plinary field that combines two different areas of microwave engineering and photonics. It has several key features by transferring signals between the optical domain and microwave domain, which leads to the advantages of broad operation bandwidth for generation, processing and distribution of microwave signals and high resolution for optical spectrum measurement. In this paper, we comprehensively review past and current status of MWP in China by introducing the representative works from most of the active MWP research groups. Future prospective is also discussed fi＇om the national strategy to key enabling technology that we have developed.

Optical signal processing based on silicon photonics waveguide Bragg gratings： review

This paper reviews the work done by research- ers at INRS and UBC in the field of integrated microwave photonics （IMWPs） using silicon based waveguide Bragg gratings （WBGs）. The grating design methodology is discussed in detail, including practical device fabrication considerations. On-chip implementations of various fun- darnental photonic signal processing units, including Fourier transformers, Hilbert transformers, ultrafast pulse shapers etc., are reviewed. Recent progress on WBGs- based IMWP subsystems, such as true time delay elements, phase shifters, real time frequency identification systems, is also discussed.

Microwave photonics connected with microresonator frequency combs

Microresonator frequency combs （microcombs） are very promising as ultra-compact broadband sources for microwave photonic applications. Conversely, microwave photonic techniques are also employed inten- sely in the study of microcombs to reveal and control the comb formation dynamics. In this paper, we reviewed the microwave photonic techniques and applications that are connected with microcombs. The future research directions of microcomb-based microwave photonics were also discussed.

Multifunctional mixed analog/digital signal processor based on integrated photonics

Photonic signal processing offers a versatile and promising toolkit for contemporary scenarios ranging from digital optical communication to analog microwave operation.Compared to its electronic counterpart,it eliminates inherent bandwidth limitations and meanwhile exhibits the potential to provide unparalleled scalability and flexibility,particularly through integrated photonics.However,by far the on-chip solutions for optical signal processing are often tailored to specific tasks,which lacks versatility across diverse applications.Here,we propose a streamlined chip-level signal processing architecture that integrates different active and passive building blocks in silicon-on-insulator(SOI)platform with a compact and efficient manner.Comprehensive and in-depth analyses for the architecture are conducted at levels of device,system,and application.Accompanied by appropriate configuring schemes,the photonic circuitry supports loading and processing both analog and digital signals simultaneously.Three distinct tasks are facilitated with one single chip across several mainstream fields,spanning optical computing,microwave photonics,and optical communications.Notably,it has demonstrated competitive performance in functions like image processing,spectrum filtering,and electro-optical bandwidth equalization.Boasting high universality and a compact form factor,the proposed architecture is poised to be instrumental for next-generation functional fusion systems.

On-chip light sources for silicon photonics

Serving as the electrical to optical converter,the on-chip silicon light source is an indispensable component of silicon photonic technologies and has long been pursued.Here,we briefly review the history and recent progress of a few promising contenders for on-chip light sources in terms of operating wavelength,pump condition,power consumption,and fabrication process.Additionally,the performance of each contender is also assessed with respect to thermal stability,which is a crucial parameter to consider in complex optoelectronic integrated circuits(OEICs)and optical interconnections.Currently,III-V-based silicon(Si)lasers formed via bonding techniques demonstrate the best performance and display the best opportunity for commercial usage in the near future.However,in the long term,direct hetero-epitaxial growth of III–V materials on Si seems more promising for low-cost,high-yield fabrication.The demonstration of high-performance quantum dot(QD)lasers monolithically grown on Si strongly forecasts its feasibility and enormous potential for on-chip lasers.The superior temperature-insensitive characteristics of the QD laser promote this design in large-scale high-density OEICs.The Germanium(Ge)-on-Si laser is also competitive for large-scale monolithic integration in the future.Compared with a III-V-based Si laser,the biggest potential advantage of a Ge-on-Si laser lies in its material and processing compatibility with Si technology.Additionally,the versatility of Ge facilitates photon emission,modulation,and detection simultaneously with a simple process complexity and low cost.

On-chip wireless silicon photonics: from reconfigurable interconnects to lab-on-chip devices

Photonic integrated circuits are developing as key enabling components for high-performance computing and advanced networkon-chip,as well as other emerging technologies such as lab-on-chip sensors,with relevant applications in areas from medicine and biotechnology to aerospace.These demanding applications will require novel features,such as dynamically reconfigurable light pathways,obtained by properly harnessing on-chip optical radiation.In this paper,we introduce a broadband,high directivity(4150),low loss and reconfigurable silicon photonics nanoantenna that fully enables on-chip radiation control.We propose the use of these nanoantennas as versatile building blocks to develop wireless(unguided)silicon photonic devices,which considerably enhance the range of achievable integrated photonic functionalities.As examples of applications,we demonstrate 160 Gbit s−1 data transmission over mm-scale wireless interconnects,a compact low-crosstalk 12-port crossing and electrically reconfigurable pathways via optical beam steering.Moreover,the realization of a flow micro-cytometer for particle characterization demonstrates the smart system integration potential of our approach as lab-on-chip devices.

Silicon photonics for telecom and data‐com applications

In recent decades,silicon photonics has attracted much attention in telecom and data-com areas.Constituted of high refractive-index contrast waveguides on silicon-on-insulator(SOI),a variety of integrated photonic passive and active devices have been implemented supported by excellent optical properties of silicon in the mid-infrared spectrum.The main advantage of the silicon photonics is the ability to use complementary metal oxide semiconductor(CMOS)process-compatible fabrication technologies,resulting in high-volume production at low cost.On the other hand,explosively growing traffic in the telecom,data center and high-performance computer demands the data flow to have high speed,wide bandwidth,low cost,and high energy-efficiency,as well as the photonics and electronics to be integrated for ultra-fast data transfer in networks.In practical applications,silicon photonics started with optical interconnect transceivers in the data-com first,and has been now extended to innovative applications such as multi-port optical switches in the telecom network node and integrated optical phased arrays(OPAs)in light detection and ranging(LiDAR).This paper overviews the progresses of silicon photonics from four points reflecting the recent advances mentioned above.CMOS-based silicon photonic platform technologies,applications to optical transceiver in the data-com network,applications to multi-port optical switches in the telecom network and applications to OPA in LiDAR system.

Neuromorphic silicon photonics with 50 GHz tiled matrix multiplication for deep-learning applications

The explosive volume growth of deep-learning(DL)applications has triggered an era in computing,with neuromorphic photonic platforms promising to merge ultra-high speed and energy efficiency credentials with the brain-inspired computing primitives.The transfer of deep neural networks(DNNs)onto silicon photonic(SiPho)architectures requires,however,an analog computing engine that can perform tiled matrix multiplication(TMM)at line rate to support DL applications with a large number of trainable parameters,similar to the approach followed by state-of-the-art electronic graphics processing units.Herein,we demonstrate an analog SiPho computing engine that relies on a coherent architecture and can perform optical TMM at the record-high speed of 50 GHz.Its potential to support DL applications,where the number of trainable parameters exceeds the available hardware dimensions,is highlighted through a photonic DNN that can reliably detect distributed denial-of-service attacks within a data center with a Cohen’s kappa score-based accuracy of 0.636.

Wavelength-mode pulse interleaver on the silicon photonics platform

We report an 8-channel wavelength-mode optical pulse interleaver on a silicon photonic chip.Wavelength-and mode-division multiplexing techniques are combined to increase the repetition rate of the pulses without adding the complexity of a single dimension.The interleaver uses a cascaded Mach–Zehnder interferometer architecture as a wavelength-division(de)multiplexer,an asymmetric directional coupler as a mode(de)multiplexer,and various lengths of silicon waveguides as delay lines.A pulse sequence with a time interval of 125 ps is implemented with the repetition rate being eight times that of the initial one.The demonstrated wavelength-mode multiplexing approach opens a new route for the generation of high-speed optical pulses.

Numerical investigation on photonic microwave generation by a sole excited-state emitting quantum dot laser with optical injection and optical feedback

Based on three-level exciton model,the enhanced photonic microwave signal generation by using a sole excited-state(ES)emitting quantum dot(QD)laser under both optical injection and optical feedback is numerically studied.Within the range of period-one(P1)dynamics caused by the optical injection,the variations of microwave frequency and microwave intensity with the parameters of frequency detuning and injection strength are demonstrated.It is found that the microwave frequency can be continuously tuned by adjusting the injection parameters,and the microwave intensity can be enhanced by changing the injection strength.Moreover,considering that the generated microwave has a wide linewidth,an optical feedback loop is further employed to compress the linewidth,and the effect of feedback parameters on the linewidth is investigated.It is found that with the increase of feedback strength or delay time,the linewidth is evidently decreased due to the locking effect.However,for the relatively large feedback strength or delay time,the linewidth compression effect becomes worse due to the gradually destroyed P1 dynamics.Besides,through optimizing the feedback parameters,the linewidth can be reduced by up to more than one order of magnitude for different microwave frequencies.

Efficient stochastic parallel gradient descent training for on-chip optical processor

In recent years,space-division multiplexing(SDM)technology,which involves transmitting data information on multiple parallel channels for efficient capacity scaling,has been widely used in fiber and free-space optical communication sys-tems.To enable flexible data management and cope with the mixing between different channels,the integrated reconfig-urable optical processor is used for optical switching and mitigating the channel crosstalk.However,efficient online train-ing becomes intricate and challenging,particularly when dealing with a significant number of channels.Here we use the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm to configure the integrated optical processor,which has less com-putation than the traditional gradient descent(GD)algorithm.We design and fabricate a 6×6 on-chip optical processor on silicon platform to implement optical switching and descrambling assisted by the online training with the SPDG algorithm.Moreover,we apply the on-chip processor configured by the SPGD algorithm to optical communications for optical switching and efficiently mitigating the channel crosstalk in SDM systems.In comparison with the traditional GD al-gorithm,it is found that the SPGD algorithm features better performance especially when the scale of matrix is large,which means it has the potential to optimize large-scale optical matrix computation acceleration chips.

Design and simulation of a silicon-based hybrid integrated optical gyroscope system

By combining a silicon-based lithium niobate modulator and a silicon-based Si3N4resonator with silicon-based photonics technology,a highly systematic design of a hybrid integrated optical gyroscope with enhanced reciprocity sensitivity and a dual micro-ring structure is proposed for the first time in this paper.The relationship between the device's structural parameters and optical performance is also analyzed by constructing a complete simulation link,which provides a theoretical design reference to improve the system's sensitivity.When the wavelength is 1550 nm,the conversion frequency of the dual-ring optical path is 50 MHz,the coupling coefficient is 0.2,and the radius R is 1000μm,the quality factor of the silicon-based Si_(3)N_(4)resonator is 2.58×10^(5),which is 1.58 times that of the silicon-on-insulator resonator.Moreover,the effective number of times the light travels around the ring before leaving the micro-ring is 5.93,which is 1.62 times that of the silicon-on-insulator resonator.The work fits the gyro dynamic output diagram,and solves the problem of low sensitivity at low speed by setting the phase offset.This results provide a basis for the further optimization of design and chip processing of the integrated optical gyroscope.

Instantaneous frequency measurement using two parallel I/Q modulators based on optical power monitoring

A scheme for instantaneous frequency measurement(IFM)using two parallel I/Q modulators based on optical power monitoring is proposed.The amplitude comparison function(ACF)can be constructed to establish the relationship between the frequency of radio frequency(RF)signal and the power ratio of two optical signals output by two I/Q modulators.The frequency of RF signal can be derived by measuring the optical power of the optical signals output by two I/Q modulators.The measurement range and measurement error can be adjusted by controlling the delay amount of the electrical delay line.The feasibility of the scheme is verified,and the corresponding measurement range and measurement error of the system under different delay amounts of the electrical delay line are given.Compared with previous IFM schemes,the structure of this scheme is simple.Polarization devices,a photodetector and an electrical power meter are not used,which reduces the impact of the environmental disturbance on the system and the cost of the system.In simulation,the measurement range can reach 0 GHz-24.5 GHz by adjusting the delay amount of the electrical delay lineτ=20 ps.The measurement error of the scheme is better at low frequency,and the measurement error of low frequency 0 GHz-9.6 GHz can reach-0.1 GHz to+0.05 GHz.

On-chip optical pulse shaper for arbitrary waveform generation

We propose and demonstrate a silicon-on-insulator （SOI） on-chip optical pulse shaper based on four-tap finite impulse response. Due to different width designs in phase region of each tap, the phase differences for all taps are controlled by an external thermal source, resulting in an optical pulse shaper. We further demonstrate optical arbitrary waveform generation based on the optical pulse shaper assisted by an optical frequency comb injection. Four different optical waveforms are generated when setting the central wavelengths at 1533.78 nm and 1547.1 nm and setting the thermal source temperatures at 23 ℃ and 33 ℃, respectively. Our scheme has distinct advantages of compactness, capability for integrating with electronics since the integrated silicon waveguide is employed.

Photonic generation of RF and microwave signal with relative frequency instability of 10^(-15)

We demonstrate the ultra-stable frequency sources aiming to improve the short-time instability of primary frequency standards.These sources are realized by using photonic generation approach,and composed of ultra-stable lasers,optical-frequency-combs,optical signal detecting parts,and synthesizers.Preliminary evaluation shows that the sources produce fixed-frequency at 9.54(/9.63)GHz,10 MHz,and tunable-frequency around 9.192 GHz with relative frequency instability of 10^(-15) for short terms.

Microwave photonic filter with a continuously tunable central frequency using an SOI high-Q microdisk resonator

Utilizing a high-Q microdisk resonator （MDR） on a single silicon-on-insulator （SOI） chip, a compact microwave photonic filter （MPF） with a continuously tunable central frequency is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Assisted by the optical single side-band （OSSB） modulation, the optical frequency response of the MDR is mapped to the microwave frequency response to form an MPF with a continuously tunable central frequency and a narrow 3-dB bandwidth. In the experiment, using an MDR with a compact size of 20×20 μm^2 and a high Q factor of 1.07×10^5, we obtain a compact MPF with a high rejection ratio of about 40 dB, a 3-dB bandwidth of about 2 GHz, and a frequency tuning range larger than 12 GHz. Our approach may allow the implementation of very compact, low-cost, low-consumption, and integrated notch MPF in a silicon chip.

Photonic radio frequency channelizers based on Kerr optical micro-combs

We review recent work on broadband RF channelizers based on integrated optical frequency Kerr micro-combs combined with passive micro-ring resonator filters,with microcombs having channel spacings of 200 and 49 GHz.This approach to realizing RF channelizers offers reduced complexity,size,and potential cost for a wide range of applications to microwave signal detection.

Strict non-blocking four-port optical router for mesh photonic network-on-chip

We report a strict non-blocking four-port optical router that is used for a mesh photonic network-on-chip on a silicon-on-insulator platform.The router consists of eight silicon microring switches that are tuned by the thermo-optic effect.For each tested rousting state,the signal-to-noise ratio of the optical router is larger than 13.8 dB at the working wavelength.The routing functionality of the device is verified.We perform 40 Gbps nonreturn to zero code data transmission on its 12 optical links.Meanwhile,data transmission using wavelength division multiplexing on eight channels in the C band(from 1525 to 1565 nm)has been adopted to increase the communication capacity.The optical router’s average energy efficiency is 25.52 fJ/bit.The rising times(10%to 90%)of the eight optical switch elements are less than 10μs and the falling times(90%-10%)are less than 20μs.

Single-shot incoherent optical processing of microwave signals： opening the path to low cost high performance analog photonics

Incoherent optical processing of microwave signals,where low-coherence broadband light sources are employed instead of costly mode locked lasers,has attracted great interest thanks to its wide applications in microwave photonics filtering[1–3],arbitrary generation[4–6]and analog to digital conversion[7]。