Photonic Generation of Multi-Format Radar Waveforms Based on an Integrated Silicon IQ Modulator

We propose and demonstrate a photonic scheme to generate reconfigurable radar waveforms based on an integrated silicon in-phase and quadrature-phase (IQ) modulator. It has significant advantages over commercial LiNbO
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modulator-based schemes in terms of the compatibility with CMOS technology, compact size, light weight, low cost and low power consumption. Experimentally, multi-format radar waveforms, including dual-chirp microwave waveforms, phase-shift keying signals, and amplitude-shift keying signals are successfully generated. The generated waveforms have flexible tunability of center frequency and bandwidth. Our scheme shows the great potential of an on-chip scheme to generate multi-format microwave waveforms for modern radars and electronic warfare systems.