Photonic Generation and Transmission of Linearly Chirped Microwave Waveform With Increased Time-Bandwidth Product

Abstract

Photonic generation and transmission of linearly chirped microwave waveform with the increased time-bandwidth product (TBWP) is proposed and demonstrated by phase-encoding and splitting parabolic waveform. In the approach, dual-polarization Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPol-MZM) along with polarization controller (PC) is employed to generate two orthogonally polarized wavelengths, and polarization modulator is driven by a parabolic signal. After splitting parabolic waveform and convolving with a binary pseudo random sequence, chirped microwave waveform with high bandwidth and large temporal duration is generated, corresponding to an improved TBWP. Dispersion-induced power fading can be effectively avoided in the approach, and chirped signal with constant initial phase can be achieved by adjusting the PC. The proposed approach is verified by simulations. Linearly chirped microwave waveform with the central frequency of 40 GHz, bandwidth of 12.5 GHz, and TBWP of 20160 is generated. RF spurious suppression ratios of the generated signal are investigated, and pulse compression performances are also analyzed. The system features filter-free, high tunability, compact structure, and large TBWP, which has potential application in the modern radar system.