Microwave Photonic Devices and Systems

Abstract- In this paper, we review our recent work on novel high-speed photonic InP components and their application in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) fiber-wireless systems. In detail, the paper is concerned with ultra broadband travelling-wave photomixers and photodetectors, high-speed waveguide modulators, as well as novel electroabsorption transceiver elements. Besides the basic device concepts and properties, the employment of the high-speed photonic components in a mm-wave fiber-wireless network is experimentally demonstrated, showing for the first time, full-duplex broadband fiber optic transmission in a point-to-point link. Furthermore, point-to-multipoint fiber-ring networks will be discussed and in a first experiment full-duplex point-to-multipoint operation is experimentally demonstrated. Finally, an EMC optical microwave sensor is also described. Introduction – Within the last decade, the field of microwave photonics [1,2] has attracted growing interest worldwide. Especially, the optical distribution of microwave and mm-wave signals in wireless applications such as fiber-wireless networks or antenna arrays is of great interest. Future wireless communication networks, for example, are expected to offer broadband multimedia services to a large number of subscribers. As a consequence, the radio frequency is expected to be within the mm-wave band, e.g. a