Patent ID: 7965745

Claim:
A photonic RF device, comprising: a laser that is tunable in response to a control signal and produces a laser beam at a laser frequency; a first optical resonator structured to support a whispering gallery mode circulating in the first optical resonator, the optical resonator being optically coupled to the laser to receive a portion of the laser beam into the optical resonator in the whispering gallery mode and to feed laser light in the whispering gallery mode in the optical resonator back to the laser to stabilize the laser frequency at a frequency of the whispering gallery mode and to reduce a linewidth of the laser; a second optical resonator made of an electro-optic material to support a whispering gallery mode circulating in the optical resonator, the second optical resonator being optically coupled to the laser to receive a portion of the laser beam from the laser; an RF circuit that receives an input RF signal carrying a baseband signal and modulates the second optical resonator at a frequency equal to a free spectral range of the second optical resonator to cause optical modulation in the received portion of the laser beam so the modulated light inside the second optical modulator carries the baseband signal; and a slow optical detector coupled to detect modulated light coupled out of the second optical resonator to produce a baseband signal of the input RF signal.