High-resolution 3D imaging with a photonics-based broadband MIMO radar

Photonics-based radar enables high range resolution detection by using photonic techniques to generate and process broadband linearly-frequency-modulation (LFM) signals. By incorporating the multiple input and multiple output (MIMO) technique to a photonics-based radar, the azimuth resolution can be improved. In this report, a photonics-based MIMO radar is presented and the high-resolution 3D imaging capability is demonstrated. The built photonics-based 4×4 MIMO radar has a bandwidth of 2 GHz in each channel. 3D images of three corner reflectors are successfully constructed applying back-projection (BP) algorithm. The proposed technique may find good applications in the areas where high-resolution 3D radar imaging is required.