Photonics-enabled distributed MIMO radar for high-resolution 3D imaging

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) imaging radar is an advanced sensor applied in space surveillance and target recognition for supplying 3D geometric features and supporting visualization. However, high 3D resolution requires both broadband operation and a large 2D aperture, which are difficult and complex for conventional radars. This paper presents a photonics-enabled distributed multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) radar with a centralized architecture. By use of photonic multi-dimensional multiplexing, multi-channel signal generation and reception are implemented on a shared reference signal in a central office, enabling a highly coherent network with a simple structure. Additionally, a sparse array and a synthetic aperture are combined to efficiently reduce the required transceivers, further weakening the dilemma between system complexity and angular resolution. A 4 × 4 MIMO radar is established and evaluated in field tests. A high-resolution 3D image of a non-cooperative aircraft is obtained, in which rich details are displayed. From a comparison with electronics-based radar, significant resolution improvement is observed. The results verify the superior imaging capability and practicability of the proposed radar and its great potential to outperform conventional technologies in target classification and recognition applications.