Chip‐Based Microwave‐Photonic Radar for High‐Resolution Imaging

Abstract

Radar is the only sensor that can realize target imaging at all time and all weather, which would be a key technical enabler for future intelligent society. Poor resolution and large size are the two critical issues for radar to gain ground in civil applications. Conventional electronic radars are difficult to address due to both issues, especially in the Ka band or lower. In this work, a chip-based microwave-photonic radar based on silicon photonic platform, which can implement high-resolution imaging with very small footprint, is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Both the wideband signal generator and the de-chirp receiver are integrated on the chip. A broadband microwave-photonic imaging radar occupying the full Ku band is experimentally established. A high-precision range measurement with a resolution of 2.7 cm and an error of less than 2.75 mm is obtained. Inverse synthetic aperture imaging of multiple targets with complex profiles is also implemented.

Design of an Integrated-Photonics RF Beamformer for Multi-Beam Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar

“…The estimated value for the gain is high, considering the number of functions performed by the hybrid PIC, compared to other microwave photonics architectures [7]. The value for the NF might sound large, although it is reasonable for a photonics-based down-conversion but, being placed after other RF devices with high gain and lower NF, it does not affect much the NF of the whole SAR receiver.…”

“…Moreover, photonics-based radars have been recently demonstrated both using commercial components [6] and implemented as a PIC [7], and are gaining a lot of interest thanks to their broad bandwidth and frequency flexibility. In particular, frequency-agnostic optical components allow to design radars up to Ka-band.…”

Recent progress of integrated circuits and optoelectronic chips

“…Hao et al [169] demonstrated an integrated OEO featuring monolithic integration of all its photonic parts and RF subsections, where all the photonic parts of the OEO were monolithically integrated on a common InP substrate. In addition, Li et al [170] experimentally demonstrated a chip-based microwave-photonic radar which enabled high-resolution imaging based on a silicon photonic platform, where high-precision range measurement with a resolution of 2.7 cm and an error of less than 2.75 mm was obtained. Note that, the integrated microwave photonics has been gradually promoted from the proof-of-concept stage to the practical application stage.…”

An Up/Downstream Shared Optical Beam Forming Network for Remote Phased Array Antenna

“…This structure could have applications in remote phased array antenna, which is beneficial for cooperative control and flexible configuration. This optical beam forming network we proposed has potential applications in chip-scale integration in the future [13]- [17].…”