卫星遥感、深空探测、电子对抗以及基础科学研究等领域的发展,促进着微波系统向着高频、宽带、大动态范围、广域覆盖等方向发展。传统的微波系统在微波信号的生成、分配、控制、处理等方面面临巨大挑战。微波光子学是研究微波和光波相互作用规律及应用的一门新兴学科,它利用光子学方法产生、分配、控制与处理宽带毫米波信号,被普遍认为是应对上述重大挑战的有效途径。重点阐述了微波光子技术的基本概念、发展历程及其应用前景;分析了微波光子技术面临的动态范围、转换效率、相位噪声等方面的挑战以及最新的研究成果;介绍了微波光子技术在干涉天线组阵、雷达模拟前端信号处理以及光钟方面的应用成果。

Microwave system capable of high frequency, broadband, large dynamic range and wide coverage is high demanded by the remote sensing, deep-space exploration and electronic countermeasures, etc. These pose challenges on the generation, distribution, control and processing of the microwave signals in conventional microwave systems. Taking the advantages of the huge available bandwidth and ultra-high frequency, microwave photonic is one promising candidate as it provides unprecedented benefits in generation, distribution, control and process of the photonic generated microwave signals .This paper presents the basic concept, history and potential of microwave photonics, including the latest progresses in dynamic range, conversion efficiency and the phase noise as well as the progresses in fields of applications such as coherent antenna array, analog signal processing and optical clock.