Microwave photonics is an emerging interdisciplinary field where the microwave and photonic technologies join forces. Microwave photonic systems are proposed and designed to realize certain functions and solve certain problems that are difficult to be achieved solely with either the microwave or the photonic technologies. Particularly, as the fast evolution of the mobile networks towards beyond the fifth generation (5G), microwave photonic technologies are becoming increasingly important to bridge the fibre-optic systems and the radio frequency systems and achieve seamless convergence between the two. Therefore, the knowledge of operation, characterization and optimization of microwave photonic devices and systems is expected to be highly demanded for researchers and engineers in the coming decades. Within the study course, students will gain knowledge about microwave photonic devices, systems and applications, optical modulation techniques, analogue and digital radio-over-fibre transmission technologies, noise and nonlinearity sources in the analogue radio-over-fibre system, and the possible engineering infrastructure of the future millimetre-wave and terahertz communications.
Course contents:
- Introduction to microwave photonics.
- Basic optoelectronic components and devices.
- Optical modulation techniques: directly modulation and external modulation.
- Optical modulation techniques: amplitude modulation and phase modulation.
- Analog and digital radio-over-fibre links.
- Performance metrics for analogue microwave photonic systems.
- Noise sources in microwave photonic systems.
- Nonlinear distortions and dynamic range in microwave photonics.
- Broadband millimetre-wave and terahertz signal generation, transmission and detection.
- Practical and experimental works in analogue radio-over-fibre system characterizations in a teaching-scientific laboratory.
