Demonstration of a microwave photonic synthetic aperture radar based on photonic-assisted signal generation and stretch processing

A microwave photonic synthetic aperture radar (MWP SAR) is developed and experimentally demonstrated. In the transmitter, microwave photonic frequency doubling is used to generate a linearly-frequency-modulated (LFM) radar signal; while in the receiver, photonic stretch processing is employed to receive the reflection signal. The presented MWP SAR operates in Ku band with a bandwidth of 600MHz, and is evaluated through a series of inverse SAR imaging tests both in a microwave anechoic chamber and in a field trial. Its imaging performance verifies that the proposed MWP SAR works perfect and shows the potential of overcoming the conventional radar bandwidth bottleneck.