Optical-assisted broadband microwave instantaneous frequency measurement method
Technical Field
The invention relates to the fields of microwave detection, microwave photonics and radar, in particular to an optical-assisted broadband microwave instantaneous frequency measurement technology.
Background
Modern wars have become electronic wars to some extent, wherein radars play a great role, and if the frequency parameters of signals transmitted by enemy radars can be rapidly acquired, the electronic wars can become one of the key factors for controlling the success or failure of the war. Although the conventional electronic instantaneous frequency measurement receiver can measure the instantaneous frequency of a signal with a duration of 5ns or less (b.zhang, x.wang, and s.pan, "Photonics-based instant multi-parameter measurement of a linear frequency modulation microwave signal," Journal of Lightwave Technology, vol.36, no.13, pp.2589-2596, 2018 m.pagani et al, "Low-and branched microwave frequency measurement in a silicon chip," Optica, vol.2, pp.751-756,2015 "), the bandwidth bottleneck of an electronic system is difficult to realize in real-time measurement of large bandwidth, and the modern electronic requirement can not be met.
By means of the advantages of large bandwidth, low loss, electromagnetic interference resistance and the like, the rapid development of the microwave photon technology provides possibility for the improvement of the performance of the receiver, and an instantaneous frequency measurement scheme based on the photon technology becomes a research hotspot in recent years. Typical implementations include principles based on frequency-microwave power mapping (C.Yang, W.Yu, and J.Liu, "configurable insulation from frequency Measurement system based on a polarization multiplexing modulator", IEEE Photonic Journal, vol.11, no.1, pp.1-11,2019.), or frequency-to-optical power mapping (J.Li, L.pei, T.G.Ning, J.J.Zheng, Y.J.Li, and R.S.He, "insulation from microwave resonance by optical power monitoring based on a polarization integration", journal of lightning, technology No. 38, 8-2291.2285).
But in general, the frequency-to-microwave power mapping scheme requires a high-speed photodetector, which greatly increases the cost of the system; the direct current component obtained by the frequency-to-optical power mapping scheme through direct analysis is difficult to avoid direct current and low-frequency noise interference. The invention discloses an optical auxiliary broadband microwave instantaneous frequency measuring method and device, which can avoid direct current and low-frequency noise interference and obtain a system with high response speed, simple structure and low cost.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the significant advantages of the microwave photon technology, the invention aims to provide an optical-assisted broadband microwave instantaneous frequency measurement and analysis method, which needs to modulate a microwave signal intercepted by a radar onto an optical wave, generates an amplitude comparison function only related to the frequency of the microwave signal to be measured through a certain optical path structure, and further obtains the frequency of the microwave signal to be measured, thereby realizing high-precision instantaneous frequency measurement in a broadband range.
The object of the present invention is achieved by the following means.
An optical auxiliary broadband microwave instantaneous frequency measurement method and device mainly comprise a continuous laser source, a carrier suppression single-side band modulation module, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, an acousto-optic modulator and two low-speed photoelectric detectors. The processing steps are as follows: continuous light emitted by a laser firstly enters a carrier suppression single-sideband modulation module to be modulated by a received microwave signal to be detected, and a generated single-sideband optical signal is divided into two branches through a coupler; the upper branch optical sideband enters a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to obtain two port outputs of complementary filtering; the lower branch enters an acousto-optic modulator to enable the central frequency to generate f s The frequency shift of (2); the frequency shift amount can flexibly select a nonzero positive value number between MHz and hundred MHz orders according to actual requirements; the outputs of the two branches are merged and enter two low-speed photodetectors, and the beat frequency generates a carrier frequency f s The radio frequency signal of (a); and comparing the amplitudes of the two radio frequency signals to obtain an amplitude comparison function, and inferring the frequency of the microwave signal to be detected.
By the method of the invention, the frequency information of microwave signals in different frequency bands is converted into carrier frequency f s The amplitude information of the radio frequency signal avoids the use of a high-speed photoelectric device, effectively avoids the interference of direct current and low-frequency noise, and effectively improves the measurement precision of the instantaneous frequency of the broadband microwave signal.
It is also an object of the invention to provide a core device for the implementation of the above method.
An optical auxiliary broadband microwave instantaneous frequency measuring device is composed of a continuous laser source 10, a carrier suppression single-sideband modulation module 20, a first optical coupler 30, a second optical coupler 31, a third optical coupler 32, a fourth optical coupler 33, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer 40, an acousto-optic modulator 50, a first low-speed photoelectric detector 60, a second low-speed photoelectric detector 61 and an electric processing module 70; the continuous light emitted from the laser light source 10 first enters into the carrier suppressionThe single-sideband modulation module 20 is composed of an electro-optical modulator 201 and a band-pass filter 202 in sequence; the frequency of the received microwave signal to be measured is f m The carrier-suppressed double-sideband modulation is performed on the optical carrier in the electro-optical modulator 201, and then only a single first-order optical sideband is obtained after the carrier-suppressed double-sideband modulation is filtered by the band-pass filter 202, and the single optical sideband is divided into two branches by the coupler 30; the upper branch optical sideband enters a Mach-Zehnder interferometer 40 to obtain two-port output signals A and B of complementary filtering; the lower branch optical sideband passes through the acousto-optic modulator 50 to generate f s At a light wave frequency f c +f m +f s Wherein f is c Is the frequency of the laser source, f m For the received frequency of the microwave signal to be measured, f s Is the frequency shift of the acousto-optic modulator and is then split into signals C and D by a third optical coupler 32; the upper branch output signal a and the lower branch output signal C are merged into the first low-speed photodetector 60 through the second optical coupler 31, and similarly, the upper branch output signal B and the lower branch output signal D are merged into the second low-speed photodetector 61 through the fourth optical coupler 33; then, two carrier frequencies f are generated in the first low-speed photodetector 60 and the second low-speed photodetector 61 respectively by beat frequency s The radio frequency signal of (a); amplitude comparison is performed on the two obtained radio frequency signals through the electric processing module 70, and the frequency of the microwave signal to be detected is deduced.
The specific implementation process is as follows: continuous light emitted by a laser firstly enters a carrier suppression single-sideband modulation module to be modulated by a received microwave signal to be detected, and under the modulation of a small signal, a generated single-sideband optical signal can be expressed as follows:
wherein t is a time variable, E 0 Is the electric field amplitude of the optical carrier, beta is the modulation index of the electro-optic modulator 201, f c Is the frequency of the laser source, f m The frequency of the received microwave signal to be measured. Then the optical sideband is divided into two paths by a coupler, and the upper branch enters Mach-ZehnderIn the interferometer, the position of an optical carrier is aligned with the position of one wave peak or wave trough in the inherent complementary transmission response of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and two-port output of complementary filtering is obtained after delay interference is realized. Assuming that the loss of each arm of the mach-zehnder interferometer is negligible and the coupling coefficient of the two arms is set to 0.5, the optical signals of the two output ports of the mach-zehnder interferometer can be expressed as:
here phi 1 、φ 2 The additional phase frequency shift quantity introduced by two arms of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer is indicated, and the following expression is obtained by simplifying the formula (2):
the phase difference introduced by the two arms can be expressed as
Equation (3) can be expressed as:
where λ is the wavelength of the light wave, n is the effective refractive index of the fiber, and Δ L is the difference in length between the two arms. The time delay, which can be derived from the transfer function properties of the mach-zehnder interferometer, is:
c is the propagation speed of light in vacuum, equation (4) can be expressed as:
emitting the lower branch optical sideband signal into an acoustic-optical modulator to generate f s Amount of frequency shift of (a), wherein f s In the order of MHz to hundreds of MHz. The expression of the electric field is:
the two outputs of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and the output of the acousto-optic modulator are combined by the coupler and enter the low-speed photoelectric detector for beat frequency, and the expression of the generated current signal is as follows:
where + and-represent the upper and lower branches, and the carrier frequency is f compared with the formula (7) and the formula (8) s The amplitude information of (c) is obtained as an expression of an Amplitude Comparison Function (ACF) as follows:
according to the formula (9), the method avoids interference of direct current and low-frequency noise, the whole process is irrelevant to the change of the light source power and the microwave power, and the expression of the frequency of the microwave signal to be detected is obtained as follows:
said invention utilizes the unique advantages of photonics technique, and has the following advantages: the whole measurement process is irrelevant to the change of the microwave power and the optical power, has the advantages of large bandwidth, low loss, electromagnetic interference resistance and the like, and has simple structure and high response speed, and the frequency of the microwave signal to be measured can be obtained without a complex signal processing process. On the other hand, microwaves of different frequency bandsThe frequency information of the signal is converted into the central carrier frequency f s The amplitude signal of the radio frequency signal effectively avoids the interference of direct current and low-frequency noise, and improves the measurement precision.
Description of the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a system block diagram of the method of the present invention.
Fig. 2 shows complementary filtering of the upper optical sideband signal.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of frequency shifting of a downstream optical sideband signal.
Fig. 4 is a schematic diagram of generating a fixed carrier frequency signal.
Detailed Description
The following further describes the implementation of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention is composed of a continuous laser source 10, a carrier suppression single-sideband modulation module 20, optical couplers 30 to 33, a Mach-Zehnder interferometer 40, an acousto-optic modulator 50, low- speed photodetectors 60 and 61, and an electrical processing module 70.
From a laser source 10 (frequency f) c ) Starting from this, the emitted light enters a carrier-suppressed single-sideband modulation module 20, which is formed by an electro-optical modulator 201 (intensity modulator or phase modulator) and a band-pass filter 202 connected together; received microwave signal to be measured (frequency f) m ) The output optical signal is externally modulated in an electro-optical modulator 201 and then passed through a bandpass filter 202 to obtain only a single first order optical sideband. The first-order optical sideband is divided into two branches by the coupler 30, the upper branch enters the Mach-Zehnder interferometer 40, the position of the optical carrier is aligned with the position of one wave peak or wave trough in the inherent complementary transmission response, and two port signals A and B of complementary filtering are output after the delay interference is realized; the lower branch enters the acousto-optic modulator 50 to generate the center frequency f s At a frequency f of the optical wave c +f m +f s And then split into two branches C and D via a coupler 31. The upper branch output signal a and the lower branch output signal C are combined by the coupler 32 and enter the low-speed photodetector 60 for beat frequency, and similarly, the upper branch output signal B and the lower branch output signal D are combined by the coupler 33 and enter the low-speed photodetector 61. Beat frequency generating carrier frequency of f s The amplitude ratio function is obtained by comparing the amplitudes of the two radio frequency signals, and the frequency of the microwave signal to be measured is deduced.
The laser source inputs the optical signal E output after the carrier suppression single side band modulation module 1 (t) can be expressed as:
wherein t is a time variable, E 0 Is the electric field amplitude of the optical carrier, beta is the modulation index of the electro-optic modulator 201, f c At the frequency of the laser source, f m The frequency of the received microwave signal to be measured. The first-order optical sideband in the formula (11) enters the mach-zehnder interferometer, and the two-port output of the complementary filtering is obtained and expressed as:
the other optical sideband signal is transmitted to the acousto-optic modulator to generate f s The amount of optical frequency shift of, the output optical signal E C (t) the expression is:
the two paths of output of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer and the output of the acousto-optic modulator are combined by the coupler and enter the low-speed photoelectric detector for beat frequency, and the expression of the generated two electric signals is as follows:
here + and-representUpper and lower branches, comparing carrier frequency f in formula (14) and formula (15) s The amplitude information of (c) is obtained as an expression of an Amplitude Comparison Function (ACF) as follows:
as can be seen from the formula (16), the method avoids interference of direct current and low-frequency noise, and the whole process is independent of changes of the light source power and the microwave power, and the expression of the frequency of the microwave signal to be measured is obtained as follows:
in summary, the present invention has the following features: 1) The whole system has the advantages of large bandwidth, low loss, electromagnetic interference resistance and the like, is simple in structure and high in response speed, and can obtain the frequency of the microwave signal to be detected without a complex signal processing process; 2) The whole measurement process is irrelevant to the change of the microwave power and the optical power, and the measurement of the frequency of the microwave signal to be measured can be realized in a wide frequency band range; 3) The use of the acousto-optic modulator enables the frequency information of the microwave signals of different frequency bands to be converted into the central carrier frequency f s The amplitude signal of the radio frequency signal effectively avoids the interference of direct current and low-frequency noise, and improves the measurement precision.
The above description is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and it should be noted that several modifications and variations can be made in the actual implementation without departing from the spirit of the method and the core device of the present invention.