Wideband RF channelizer based on parametric combs

RF photonic channelizers can overcome limitations of conventional electronic methods for analysis of wideband RF spectral content. Here, we will present a recent progress on the RF photonic channelizer systems that are based on optical parametric combs. These systems can analyze very wide RF bandwidths exceeding 100GHz, therefore providing essential capability for the applications demanding a wide-bandwidth spectral analysis. The RF channelizers being presented utilize parametric processes in the highly non-linear fiber mixers to generate a large number of RF signal copies in the optical domain. Two different implementations for generation of RF signal copies will be presented and compared: one using a parametric multicasting and another utilizing a direct comb modulation. Generation of optical combs spanning more than 10THz will be shown. We will also present two distinct system architectures for RF photonic channelizer system: one employing a periodic optical filter such as Fabry-Perot etalon to select channels from the signal comb, and another one utilizing a coherent detection between a frequency-locked signal comb and a parametrically generated local oscillator (LO) comb. The second scheme gives benefit of providing both in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) information on channelized intermediate frequency (IF) signals. We will present a system with 32 implemented channels using a filtered scheme and a 32-channel coherent system with a full-field detection implemented on one tunable channel. Sensitivity and dynamic range as well as benefits of both system architectures will be discussed.