Photonics-Based Broadband Radar With Coherent Receiving for High-Resolution Detection

A microwave photonics radar with interference-suppressed high-resolution detection ability is proposed and experimentally demonstrated based on optical frequency quadrupling and coherent receiving de-chirping. Which is achieved by using a dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator to perform base-band signal frequency quadrupling in transmitter, and an optical coherent receiver to realize balanced photonic in-phase/quadrature (I/Q) de-chirping of the broadband radar echoes in receiver. Thanks to the frequency multiplication, a wideband radar transmitting signal can be generated with low speed electron devices. Meanwhile, interference-free detection by suppressing undesired common-mode interferences and image frequency could be achieved with balanced photonic I/Q de-chirping broadband radar echoes. In the experiment, a photonics-based K-band radar with a bandwidth of 8 GHz is demonstrated, corresponding to a resolution better than 2.0 cm. In addition, the balanced photonic I/Q de-chirping receiver achieves an image-rejection ratio of 40.4 dB. The proposed radar detection system is a promising candidate in interference-suppressed high-resolution radar application.