  Electronic analog to digital converters (ADCs) are running up against the
well-known bit depth vs bandwidth tradeoff. Towards this end, RF
photonic-enhanced ADCs have been the subject of interest for some time. Optical
frequency comb technology has been used as a workhorse underlying many of these
architectures. Unfortunately, such designs must generally grapple with SWaP
concerns, as well as frequency ambiguity issues which threaten to obscure
critical spectral information of detected RF signals. In this work, we address
these concerns via an RF photonic downconverter with potential for easy
integration and field deployment by leveraging a novel hybrid microcomb /
electro-optic comb design.
