Novel RF-source-free reconfigurable microwave photonic radar

A novel reconfigurable microwave photonic (MWP) radar has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. At a transmitting end, a microwave signal with a large bandwidth and ultra-low phase noise is generated by a Fourier domain mode locking optoelectronic oscillator. At a receiving end, photonics-based de-chirp processing is implemented by phase-modulating light waves in a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder modulator and mixing the modulated light waves at a photodetector. Without the requirement of external RF sources, the developed photonics-assisted programmable radar is capable of generating and processing microwave signals with adjustable format, bandwidth and central frequency. The proposed radar working from X to Ku band with an instantaneous bandwidth of 2 GHz is demonstrated. The reconfiguration of the radar is theoretically analyzed. The tunability of radar bandwidth and central frequency is investigated. Microwave imaging of a pair of trihedral corner reflectors based on the developed MWP radar is achieved.