STFT Based on Bandwidth-Scaled Microwave Photonics

Short-time Fourier transform (STFT) is a fundamental concept that enables the observation of dynamic spectral evolution for non-stationary signals. Broadband STFT based on digital signal processing (DSP) usually has limited acquisition frame rate, which is inherently constrained by the performance limitations of present DSP engine. The further extended acquisition frame rate can be achieved by all-optical spectrum analysis approaches, while the frequency resolution is usually worse than 1 GHz. In this article, STFT based on bandwidth-scaled microwave photonics is proposed, where the requirement for dispersion is relaxed and the attendant transmission delay in dispersive media is greatly reduced. Moreover, the frequency resolution towards MHz level could be expected in the proposed STFT. We prove that “bandwidth scaling” combined with periodic wavelength-to-time mapping (WTM) mathematically agrees with the definition of STFT. The method of customizing system parameters according to the requirements of ultrafast spectrum measurement is carefully clarified. Experimentally, joint time-frequency analysis for a variety of ultrafast non-stationary RF signals is demonstrated, where dynamic frequency resolution of 60 MHz, dynamic observation bandwidth of 1.98 GHz and acquisition frame rate of 160 MHz are simultaneously realized. The scheme we proposed is promising for the dynamic spectrum monitoring of broadband non-stationary RF signals.