Photonics-based MIMO radar with high-resolution and fast detection capability

A photonics-based multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) radar is proposed and demonstrated based on wavelength-division-multiplexed broadband microwave photonic signal generation and processing. The proposed radar has a large operation bandwidth, which helps to achieve an ultra-high range resolution. Compared with a monostatic radar, improved radar performance and extended radar applications originated from the MIMO architecture can be achieved. In addition, low-speed electronics with real-time signal processing capability is feasible. A photonics-based 2 × 2 MIMO radar is established with a 4-GHz bandwidth in each transmitter and a sampling rate of 100 MSa/s in the receiver. Performance of the photonics-based multi-channel signal generation and processing is evaluated, and an experiment for direction of arrival (DOA) estimation and target positioning is demonstrated, through which the feasibility of the proposed radar system can be verified.