Fast and large-range frequency hopping receiving based on simultaneous photonic filtering and digitizing

We propose a frequency hopping receiving method that can receive signals with a large frequency hopping range and rapid hopping speed simultaneously. It is based on simultaneous photonic filtering and digitizing, and the reception frequency is tuned by changing the temporal shape of the sampling optical pulse. The proposed receiving method is verified by an experimental verification scheme. In the verification scheme, the optical pulse from a mode-locked laser is shaped to obtain several sub-pulses with different temporal shapes by spectral shaping and frequency-to-time mapping. The reception of the frequency hopping signal is performed by introducing certain delay through a switchable delay line to select different sub-pulses as the optical sampling pulse. The frequency hopping speed and range of the verification scheme are limited mainly by the speed of the optical switches and the bandwidth of electro-optic modulators, respectively. In experiments, with available devices, frequency hopping signals with a switching time of 250 ns and signals whose carrier frequency hops from 13.35 GHz to 39.30 GHz are successfully received.