A microwave photonic chaotic radar with frequency up/down conversion capability is proposed and demonstrated to implement high-resolution ranging. The system generates broadband chaotic signals via a chaotic optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), offering superior range resolution and anti-jamming performance compared to deterministic waveforms. By leveraging a dual-polarization quadrature phase shift keying modulator (DP-QPSKM), the system integrates radar signal generation with photonic-assisted frequency conversion. The radar operating frequency can be adjusted to the Ku-band without increasing the workload of digital correlation reception. The microwave photonic frequency converter avoids the bandwidth limitations and remote transmission flexibility issues associated with electric mixers. A polarization division multiplexing (PDM) scheme is introduced to co-transmit the reference and down-converted echo signals between the remote and central stations, which ensures system coherence and avoids strict clock synchronization. Experimental results demonstrate a radar bandwidth of 6 GHz, achieving a range resolution of 2.55 cm with an error of less than 0.35 cm. The proposed method offers a flexible and robust solution for distributed sensing in autonomous driving and smart city applications.
Zhang et al. (2026) studied this question.