Recent developments in lightwave network analysis

Abstract

The widespread use of photonic systems having microwave modulation bandwidths, coupled with the inclusion of photonic components in microwave and millimetre-wave systems, is creating a demand for efficient characterisation techniques. In particular, new tools will be required for the measurement of fundamental quantities such as the microwave frequency response, bandwidth, gain and return loss of microwave photonic components. However, existing lightwave measurement techniques are primitive when compared with conventional RF and microwave network analysis. This paper provides a review of the theory and techniques used for the small-signal characterisation of microwave photonic components. State-of-the-art architectures for lightwave network analysers and the corresponding two-port calibration techniques are described.