Chirped Waveform Generation With Envelope Reconfigurability for Pulse Compression Radar

Abstract

Chirped pulses generation is evaluated and experimentally demonstrated by means of the processing of incoherent optical signals using a nonlinear dispersive element. The capability of generating chirped electrical pulses, in which the instantaneous frequency changes with time, has been demonstrated for a Gaussian waveform envelope similar to photonic coherent techniques. For pulse compression radar systems, the control of the pulse envelope permits to increase the coverage distance of the transmitted signals and the spatial resolution of the system. In this sense, the envelope control of the generated waveform has been also experimentally demonstrated for different profiles, such as gradual, hyperbolic tangent, and uniform by means of the optical signal power spectral density. Indeed, we have experimentally probed how the resolution and the coverage distance of the signals can be increased for a uniform waveform in a pulse compression radar system.