Microwave Photonic Distributed Radar System for Target Positioning Based on Joint Polarization and Sideband Multiplexing

We propose and demonstrate a microwave photonic distributed radar system for target positioning based on joint polarization and sideband multiplexing to enable four radar transceivers to share a single optical wavelength. The system consists of an indoor unit and an outdoor unit with four transceivers. The indoor unit is responsible for the generation of a linearly frequency-modulated (LFM) optical waveform which is split and sent via optical fibers to the four individual radar transceivers at the outdoor unit. After photodetection at the transceivers, four LFM microwave waveforms are generated and transmitted. When reflected by a target, four echo signals are received which are polarization and sideband multiplexed and transmitted back to the indoor unit. At the indoor unit, the multiplexed optical signal is demultiplexed and undergoes a photonic de-chirp process. The time delays are estimated by measuring the frequencies of the de-chirped signals, which are then used for target positioning. The proposed radar system is validated through a 3-D spatial target positioning experiment. The results show that the system can locate a target with a spatial positioning accuracy within
$\pm$
3 cm.