Photonic microwave matched filters for chirped microwave pulse compression

Abstract

In this paper, a technique to design and implement a photonic microwave matched filter for chirped microwave pulse compression is presented. To realize matched filtering, the filter should have a spectral response that is matched to that of the input pulse, which is implemented in this paper using a photonic system that consists of an optical single-sideband (SSB) modulator and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). The FBG is designed to have a spectral response which is transferred to the spectral response of the microwave filter via SSB modulation and heterodyne detection at a high-speed photodetector. A theoretical investigation on the microwave filter design and the chirped microwave pulse compression is developed. Theoretical analysis on the implementation of three different forms of microwave matched filters, including a classical complex matched filter (CMF), a phase-only filter (POF) and a modified inverse filter (MIF), is presented. A comparison between the filters against the performance measures for a linearly chirped microwave signal compression is provided.