Some Reflections and Simulations on the Resolution and Focusing Approach of Microwave Photonic SAR with an Across-Band Bandwidth

Microwave photonic (MWP) SAR technology can realize large bandwidth even across multiple wavebands and therefore improves the imaging resolution significantly. However, when targets are illuminated by the electromagnetic wave with such an across-band bandwidth, their scattering characteristics will change with signal frequency, which is not taken into consideration for conventional SAR imaging. In this paper, in order to investigate the resolution and optimize the imaging of MWP SAR, we first design several typical structures and conduct electromagnetic simulations on them, from which, we obtain the variation of scattering characteristics within an across-band bandwidth. Then, we use different focusing approaches for one-dimensional imaging processing and adopt different evaluation indicators to evaluate the performance of these methods comprehensively. Finally, with detailed analysis, we give suggestions on the selection of compression methods for different structures at different SNRs.