Optically implemented microwave receiver frontend

In this paper we describe research on a microwave optical receiver where analog microwave circuitry is replaced by photonic components. The ultimate goal is to produce an optical-digital receiver capable of providing a spurious free dynamic range of ~140 dBHz^2/3 and a signal to noise ratio of 7 dB in the 0 to 20 GHz range with a 4 GHz bandwidth.