A novel photonics-based RF reception approach is proposed as a competitive solution to meet the current challenges of photonic-based approaches and to realize high performances at the same time. The proposed approach adopts the superheterodyne configuration by a combination manner of electronic techniques and photonic techniques, including the ultrawideband generation of optical LO, the two-stage photonic superheterodyne frequency conversion and the real-time IF compensation. An engineering prototype has been developed and its performance has been evaluated in the laboratory environment. The experiment results preliminarily verify the feasibility of the proposed approach and its engineering potential. The typical performances are as follows: 0.1 GHz~ 45GHz operation spectrum range (>40 GHz), 900 MHz instantaneous bandwidth, 101 dBHz2/3 SFDR and 130 dBHz LDR, image rejections of ~80 dB for 1st frequency conversion and >90 dB for 2nd frequency conversion.
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