Distributed coherent microwave photonic radar with a high-precision fiber-optic time and frequency network.

In this paper, we present a distributed aperture coherent microwave photonic radar (DCMPR) system by means of a high-precision fiber-optic time-frequency synchronization network (OTFSN). The microwave photonic radar units distributed at different geographic locations are connected with the fiber network. Meanwhile, the time and frequency reference of the central controlling station are stably transferred over the fiber network to each radar unit, of which transmit and receive times are synchronized by the reference signal to cohere the multiple radar apertures. Experimentally, we demonstrate a two-unit DCMPR system with a 12-km OTFSN, where both radar units are operated in X-band and with a bandwidth of 4 GHz. Through the OTFSN, the time difference of the transmitted waveforms at the two radar units can be maintained within about 26 ps. When full coherence on transmit and receive is achieved, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) can be increased by about 8.1 dB and 7.9 dB respectively for two unit radars. Moreover, three radar reflectors are clearly imaged and probed by utilizing the mutually coherent operation, yet they are not be detectable by the single radar case.

Photonics-based simultaneous distance and velocity measurement of multiple targets utilizing dual-band symmetrical triangular linear frequency-modulated waveforms.

The distance and velocity measurement can be obtained by the round-trip time and Doppler effect on the down-chirp and the up-chirp of the linear frequency-modulated waveform (LFMW), but false targets will appear in a multi-target situation, resulting in erroneous detection. Here, we report a photonics-assisted approach to realize unambiguous simultaneous distance and velocity measurement in multi-target situations utilizing a dual-band symmetrical triangular LFMW. Dual-band observation invariance is proposed, to effectively resolve the false targets. The de-chirped signals can be obtained from parallel de-chirping processing to the dual-band echoes. By measuring and calculating the beat frequencies of the de-chirped signals in the two frequency bands, the actual parameter measurements can be acquired according to the authenticity criterion. In the experiments, detections to three targets are performed, and the distance and velocities are acquired without false targets. The absolute measurement errors of the distance and the velocity are less than 9 mm and 0.16 m/s, respectively. These results show the feasibility of the proposed approach.

Photonics based microwave dynamic 3D reconstruction of moving targets.

In this paper, a photonics based microwave dynamic 3D reconstruction of moving targets is proposed for the first time. The system is based on optical arbitrary waveform generation and photonics assisted 3D imaging processing. An X-band system is established experimentally. A 3D reconstruction of two pairs of cross-placement rotary balls is demonstrated to prove the effectiveness of the proposed system. Experimental results show that the proposed system can provide information on the stereoscopic physical structure of the targets dynamically, being favorable to identification and surveillance of the complex targets.

High-resolution W-band ISAR imaging system utilizing a logic-operation-based photonic digital-to-analog converter.

W-band inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging systems are very useful for automatic target recognition and classification due to their high spatial resolution, high penetration and small antenna size. Broadband linear frequency modulated wave (LFMW) is usually applied to this system for its de-chirping characteristic. However, nearly all of the LFMW generated in electronic W-band ISAR system are based on multipliers and mixers, suffering seriously from electromagnetic interference (EMI) and timing jitter. And photonic-assisted LFMW generator reported before is always limited by bandwidth or time aperture. In this paper, for the first time, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a high-resolution W-band ISAR imaging system utilizing a novel logic-operation-based photonic digital-to-analog converter (LOPDAC). The equivalent sampling rate of the LOPDAC is twice as large as the rate of the digital driving signal. Thus, a broadband LFMW with a large time aperture can be generated by the LOPDAC. This LFMW is up-converted to W band with an optical frequency comb. After photonic-assisted de-chirping processing and data processing to the echo, a high-resolution two-dimension image can be obtained. Experimentally, W-band radar with a time-bandwidth product (TBWP) as large as 79200 (bandwidth 8 GHz; temporal duration 9.9 us) is established and investigated. Results show that the two-dimension (range and cross-range) imaging resolution is ~1.9 cm × ~1.6 cm with a sampling rate of 100 MSa/s in the receiver.

Photonics-based wideband distributed coherent aperture radar system.

A photonics-based wideband distributed coherent aperture radar (DCAR) system is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the proposed system, the central controlling system and several spatially dispersed remote transceivers are connected by the optical fiber-based time synchronization network. In the central controlling system, the optical-carried orthogonal/coherent linear frequency modulated waveforms (LFMWs) are generated by a reconfigurable multi-channel optical arbitrary waveform generator (RMOAWG), and the signal processing for the echo waves is also implemented there. While in the remote transceivers, only the optical/RF and RF/optical conversions are carried out. Benefitting from the use of photonics-based methods, bandwidths of the generated radar signals can be large, improving the detection resolution of the system. Due to the centralized signal generation and processing, the remote transceivers can be simplified, reducing the system complexity. Moreover, the fiber-based distribution ensures low loss, good transportability, and great flexibility. Experimentally, a two-unit DCAR system operating in X-band with a bandwidth of 3 GHz is presented. When full coherence is achieved, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) gains of 8.3 dB and 8.33 dB are obtained over a single radar for radar 1 and radar 2, respectively. Results are in good agreement with theoretical prediction. Theoretically, with such SNR gain, the range detection precision can be improved to about 2.6 times that of a single radar.

Photonic generation of multi-frequency phase-coded microwave signal based on a dual-output Mach-Zehnder modulator and balanced detection.

A photonic scheme to generate a multi-frequency phase-coded microwave signal based on a dual-output Mach-Zehnder modulator (DOMZM) and balanced detection is proposed in this paper. The DOMZM driven by an electrical coding data modulates a coherent multi-wavelength light source (CMWL), and a balanced photodetector (BPD) demodulates the output of the DOMZM; as a result, a multi-frequency phase-coded microwave signal is generated. Experiments generate two two-frequency phase-coded signals: one is 5GHz/10GHz signal with a coding rate of 2Gb/s, and the other is 10GHz/20GHz signal with a coding rate of 4Gb/s. Their autocorrelation results show a good pulse compression capability. Each frequency of a two-frequency signal has similar performances with the other in terms of peak-to-side lobe ratio (PSR) and the full width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the main lobe. The proposed scheme can be applied to radar to reduce false detections in adverse conditions. With its potential flexible frequency agility, it can be used for jamming resistance and elimination of the Doppler blind speed during moving target detection.

Tunable dual frequency optoelectronic oscillator with low intermodulation based on dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator.

A tunable dual-frequency optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) based on dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) with low intermodulation is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Two tunable electronic band-pass filters are used to select the oscillation modes of the two oscillating frequencies to achieve tunable dual-frequency OEO (TDF-OEO). Each of the two selected modes are modulated onto one sub-modulator of the DPMZM. By choosing proper bias conditions of the DPMZM, the intermodulation components generated by the dual-frequencies are suppressed. The tuning range of the TDF-OEO is from 1 GHz to 15 GHz in the experiment. We also discussed and experimentally demonstrated the tuning limitation of this dual frequency system.