This paper reviews the recent advances in the field of radio frequency signal processing using photonic devices and subsystems or microwave photonic (MWP) signal processing. We focus our attention on the results reported during the last six years, as previous work has been adequately addressed in previous review papers. After a brief introduction to the basic concepts involved in MWP signal processing, we focus our attention on the most significant advances reported by different research groups in overcoming their main limitation factors. Recent advances in the emergent topic of integrated MWP signal processors are also covered and the novel approaches toward the evaluation of the main figures of merit are discussed. New proposed applications and future directions of work are also considered.

In the last decades, fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have become increasingly attractive to medical applications due to their unique properties such as small size, biocompatibility, immunity to electromagnetic interferences, high sensitivity and multiplexing capability. FBGs have been employed in the development of surgical tools, assistive devices, wearables, and biosensors, showing great potentialities for medical uses. This paper reviews the FBG-based measuring systems, their principle of work, and their applications in medicine and healthcare. Particular attention is given to sensing solutions for biomechanics, minimally invasive surgery, physiological monitoring, and medical biosensing. Strengths, weaknesses, open challenges, and future trends are also discussed to highlight how FBGs can meet the demands of nextgeneration medical devices and healthcare system.

This paper presents the fundamental principles and recent advances in the field of photonic filtering of microwave signals using discrete-time incoherent processing. We also provide a comprehensive review of the fundamentals, applications, and current state of the art.