SNR Evaluation of WDM Photonic ADCs in High-Resolution Radar Systems

The performance of the wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) photonic analogue-to-digital converter (ADC) system is evaluated numerically by using the peak signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) for different distances between the radar antenna and the sensing object, and for optical pulsed sources with different powers. For average powers of the pulsed source between 10 and 20 dBm and a distance between the radar antenna and the sensing object of 2.4 meters, peak SNR levels higher than 25 dB are achieved. When the distance is 13.5 meters, the peak SNR levels are substantially lower and do not surpass 15 dB.