Received 12 September 2020; revised 22 October 2020; accepted 26 October 2020.

Date of current version 7 January 2021.

Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/JMW.2020.3034583

Microwave Photonic Array Radars

SHILONG PAN (Senior Member, IEEE), XINGWEI YE (Student Member, IEEE),
YAMEI ZHANG (Member, IEEE), AND FANGZHENG ZHANG (Senior Member, IEEE)
(Invited Paper)
Key Laboratory of Radar Imaging and Microwave Photonics, Ministry of Education, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: FANGZHENG ZHANG (e-mail: [email protected]).
This work was supported in part by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant 2018YFB2201803, in part by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China under Grant 61871214, and also in part by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province under Grant BK20180066.

ABSTRACT Phased array radars have remarkable advantages over radars with single-element antenna in
terms of agility, flexibility, robustness, and reconfigurability. Current pure-electronic phased array radars
face challenges when operating with a large frequency tunable range and/or with broad instantaneous
bandwidth. Microwave photonics, which allows wide bandwidth, flat frequency response, low transmission
loss, and immunity to electromagnetic interference, is a promising solution to cope with issues faced by pure
electronics. In this paper, we introduce a general architecture of microwave photonic array radar systems
and review the recent advancement of optical beamforming networks. The key elements for modelling the
response of the true time delay (TTD) and/or phase-shifting unit are presented and discussed. Two typical
array antenna structures are introduced, i.e., microwave photonic phase shifter based array and optical true
time delay based array, of which the principle and typical implementations are described. High-resolution
inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging is also realized based on a microwave photonic array radar.
The possibility of on-chip integration of the microwave photonic array radar is discussed.

INDEX TERMS Microwave photonics, radar, phased array, true time delay, beamforming, radar imaging.

I. INTRODUCTION
Phased array radars can be dated back to the 1930s [1]. A
typical phased array is an array of antenna elements, of which
the phase of the transmitted or received signal to/from each
antenna element is controlled independently by a phase shifter
[2]. The use of phased array technique is a great breakthrough
for radar systems [3]–[6]. Compared with radars with single-
element antenna, the radiation power and the equivalent aper-
ture size of phased array radars are significantly improved,
which boosts the detection distance and increases the angular
FIGURE 1. Basic beamforming network for phased array radars.
resolution. The beam produced by the phased array radar can
be scanned electronically, which brings distinct advantages
over single-element mechanical scanning antenna in speed, phased array radars, which is composed of N antennas in-
flexibility, and reconfigurability. Despite the rapid develop- corporated with N phase shifters [7]. Adjacent antennas are
ment, phased array radar faces challenges when the radar separated by a distance of d. When the beam is steered to an
carrier covers a broad frequency range, or the radar waveform angle of θ , we have
has a large instantaneous bandwidth. R = d · sin θ (1)
One of the most critical components in the phased ar-
ray radar is a beamforming network. Fig. 1 illustrates the where R is the minimum distance from the wavefront to
schematic diagram of the basic beamforming network for the antenna elements. To let the signals radiated from the
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176 VOLUME 1, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021
FIGURE 2. The architecture of a generic microwave photonic arrayed radar. LD: laser diode; PD: photodetector; MZM: Mach-Zehnder modulator; DAC:
digital-to-analog converter; ADC: analog-to-digital convertor; DSP: digital signal processor; FPGA: field programmable gate array.

antennas have the same phase shifts at the wavefront, the which uses photonic devices to generate, transmit, and process
phase difference between the adjacent antennas should satisfy microwave signals [5], [10], provides a promising solution
2π f · R to the above problems. Fig. 2 shows the generic architecture
φ = (2) for microwave photonic arrayed radars, which consists of
c
broadband antenna arrays, microwave amplification chains,
where f is the frequency of the radiated signal. Substituting (2) optoelectronic conversion modules, photonic processing units
to (1), we obtain for signal generation, processing and beamforming, digital-
 
c · φ to-analog or analog-to-digital converters, and digital signal
θ = arcsin (3) processing modules. Compared with pure electronic technolo-
2π f d
gies, current microwave photonic systems may have compar-
As can be seen, the beam pointing angle θ is a function of ative or even worse performance in dynamic range and noise
the phase difference φ, and thus it can be adjusted by the figure, but the advantages of microwave photonics for array
phase shifters. radar are still attractive, which are mainly reflected in the
However, (3) is feasible only for single-frequency or following four aspects [11]–[16].
narrow-band signals, since the pointing angle is dependent on First, benefiting from the high-frequency and broadband
the frequency f. For multi-band radar or frequency-agile radar, operation capability of the optoelectronic devices and sub-
even if it is operated in the mode of narrow instantaneous systems, microwave photonic array radar can have a large
bandwidth, the carrier frequency covers a wide frequency bandwidth of ∼50 GHz. In addition, a very flat amplitude and
range. The required devices such as broadband electrically phase response in such a frequency range can be achieved.
controlled phase shifters would be expensive and usually have This is attributed to the fact that a signal with tens of GHz
poor performance due to the non-uniform response over a bandwidth in the microwave band can be regarded as a rela-
large spectral range. tively narrow-band signal when it is up-converted to an optical
On the other hand, for radars that transmit broadband wave- frequency around 200 THz. In this way, the problem of broad-
forms, which is essential to achieve a high range resolution, band impedance matching and broadband equalization in the
the frequency-dependent operation in (3) would result in beam microwave frequency band is relieved.
squint problem, i.e., the beam directions for different frequen- Second, the optical delay line, typically implemented by
cies are different [12]. This problem can be solved using true- optical fiber, has very low transmission loss, which is partic-
time-delay-based beamforming networks [13]. Considering ularly favorable for constructing a broadband true-time delay
the relationship between the time delay and phase shift, the beamforming network. The transmission loss of a microwave
beam direction in (3) can be rewritten as coaxial cable is ∼2 dB/m, while the typical loss for optical
 c
θ = arcsin τ · (4) fiber is 0.0002 dB/m, four orders of magnitude lower. Even if
d the loss of electrical-to-optical and optical-to-electrical con-
where τ is the time delay difference between adjacent an- versions is taken into consideration, microwave photonic sys-
tenna elements. Therefore, by controlling the time delays, tems still show much lower entire loss when applied in a large
frequency-independent broadband beamforming can be real- array.
ized. Nevertheless, constructing a true time delay beamform- Third, photonics provides more degrees of freedom for per-
ing network using microwave delay lines is very difficult, forming multiplexing, which opens the possibility for large-
mainly because of the considerable transmission loss and scale array radars with reduced hardware resources. In the op-
uneven frequency response. Microwave photonic technology, tical domain, wavelength-division multiplexing, polarization

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PAN ET AL.: MICROWAVE PHOTONIC ARRAY RADARS

multiplexing, and spatial division multiplexing can be applied, Different from the constant value in (5), the phase shift
in addition to the time-division multiplexing, frequency- in (6) changes linearly with the angular frequency, which
division multiplexing, and code-division multiplexing in tra- signifies the true-time-delay feature and thus broadens the
ditional electronic arrays. bandwidth of the array.
Finally, the electromagnetic interference immunity prop- In order to evaluate the performance of the entire array,
erty of the microwave photonic technology is helpful to im- the responses of the processing units are superposed with
prove the integration density of the array radar. In electronic different time delays
phased arrays, electromagnetic shielding devices are required 
to reduce electromagnetic interference, which leads to a waste H2D,θ (ω, ϕ) = Hθ (ω, n)  exp ( jτn ω) (7)
of space and extra cost. The microwave photonic devices, n
especially the optical delay line, are made of nonmetallic in which
materials such as glass and plastics which are hardly affected
1
by electromagnetic radiation below terahertz. Thus, electro- τn = nd sin ϕ (8)
magnetic shielding requirements of the broadband arrays can c
be effectively alleviated by introducing microwave photonic is the differential spatial delay between the nth antenna ele-
technologies. ment and the array reference point when a fictitious receiver
In this paper, we introduce some of the recent progress of is placed on the angle of ϕ in the far-field zone. In (7), it is
microwave photonic arrays intended for radar applications, worthy to note that the characteristics of the array with the
which consists of a theoretical model capable of revealing main lobe oriented to the angle of θ can be analyzed through
the characteristics of the array in the broadband scenario and a complex-valued response function that has two independent
several approaches to implementing the microwave photonic variables of the temporal angular frequency ω and the far-field
arrays. These approaches can be classified into two categories. observation angle ϕ. In fact, the two-dimensional response
In the first category, the arrayed radar has a narrow instanta- function H2D,θ (ω, ϕ) can be regarded as the generalization
neous bandwidth while its carrier frequency is tunable in a in the broadband scenario for the array factor in the classical
large frequency range. Broadband microwave photonic phase narrow-band array theory, in which ω is adopted as a new in-
shifters are required in this kind of phased array. The sec- dependent variable to reveal the performance variation among
ond category of microwave photonic arrays uses an optically a broad bandwidth.
controlled true time delay beamforming network to deal with Although the definition of the theoretical model in (7) is
the beam-squint problem for broadband radars. The advance- based on the assumptions of ideally identical antenna ele-
ment of photonic integrated techniques for array radars is also ments with isotropic radiation pattern, frequency-independent
overviewed. response, and accurate geometric arrangement, the model is
still acceptable in the study of microwave photonic arrays
II. THEORETICAL MODEL FOR BROADBAND MICROWAVE since it can fully reflect the influence of each photonic pro-
PHOTONIC ARRAYS cessing unit on the array performance. Thus, we can use
The key components in a microwave photonic arrayed radar the model as the framework for simulation of microwave
are the photonic processing unit connected to the antenna photonic array, separating the systematic simulation into the
elements, as shown in Fig. 2. Phase shifters are typical exam- stage of unit simulation and the stage of beamforming sim-
ples of such units. For most arrays, each processing unit can ulation. In addition, the theoretical model is beneficial to
be modeled as a linear time-invariant system, namely a filter the hardware-in-the-loop simulation of a microwave photonic
with a frequency response of Hθ (ω, n), in which θ represents array, in which frequency responses of the units, i.e., Hθ (ω,
the desired main lobe direction of the array, ω is the angular n), are obtained through experiment, and array characteristics
frequency, and n is the index number of the corresponding an- such as radiation patterns could be simply calculated instead
tenna. In phase-shifter-based arrays, the phase shift introduced of being measured in an anechoic chamber [17].
by each processing unit is independent of the signal frequency, Here we provide some simulation results on the relationship
which means the ideal Hθ (ω, n) of a phase-shifter-based array between the array bandwidth and the scale of the subarray to
should take the form of a constant phase shift, given as demonstrate the usage of the theoretical model. Consider an
  array with 24 antenna elements, of which the center frequency
1 and the distance between two adjacent elements are 20 GHz
Hθ (ω, n)PS = exp j nω0 d sin θ (5)
c and 0.75 cm, respectively. The main lobe is oriented to 60°.
where ω0 denotes the center angular frequency of the signal. Due to the periodic feature of phase control, it is much easier
For true-time-delay-based arrays, frequency-dependent phase to implement beam steering by using phase shifters than using
shifts should be implemented, and the ideal Hθ (ω, n) can be true time delay lines. However, as mentioned in Section I, the
expressed as bandwidths of phase-shift-based arrays are severely limited.
  One of the solutions to this problem is to divide the array
1 into several subarrays, in which phase shifters are employed
Hθ (ω, n)TTD = exp j nωd sin θ (6)
c within each subarray, and true time delay lines are adopted to

178 VOLUME 1, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

 true-time-delay-based array), 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 12, and 24 (pure
phase-shift-based array). Frequency bands around the center
frequency of 20 GHz are highlighted to indicate the change in
the useful bandwidths. From Fig. 3(a)–3(h), we can see that
increasing phase-shift-based elements in a subarray leads to
a decrease in the array bandwidth. The corresponding quan-
titative relationship is summarized in Fig. 3(i), in which the
relative bandwidth is defined as the 3-dB array bandwidth
divided by 20 GHz. It is obvious that if the scale of the
subarray is larger than 4, the array can merely process signals
with relative bandwidths below 50%.
Similarly, we can also use the theoretical model to study the
impact of non-idealities in Hθ (ω, n) on array performance.
Some results addressing the optical dispersion-induced un-
wanted phase shift and the effects caused by realistic switches
can be found in [18].

III. PHASED ARRAY BASED ON MICROWAVE PHOTONIC

PHASE SHIFTERS
To meet the requirements of future multi-function or cognitive
radar system, the phased array must have the capability to
be operated in multiple frequency bands with good frequency
agility. However, the performance of electronic devices con-
strains the spectral range of traditional phased arrays. Mi-
crowave photonic phase shifters can solve this problem by
providing a very flat response over a large spectral range.
In this section, different microwave photonic phase shifters
are introduced, and a typical beamforming system based on
microwave photonic phase shifters is presented.

A. MICROWAVE PHOTONIC PHASE SHIFTERS

In a microwave photonic phase shifter, the microwave signal
is first converted into the optical domain, usually realized
through electro-optical modulation. After signal processing
with an optical device or a subsystem, optical-to-electrical
conversion is implemented by a photodetector (PD) to get
the microwave signal. The phase of the microwave signal is
controlled by adjusting the parameters of the optical devices.
In general, microwave photonic phase shifters can be divided
into three categories, i.e., optical vector-sum technique, slow-
light technique, and optical heterodyne technique.
The principle of the optical vector-sum phase shifter is to
introduce an initial phase difference to two microwave signals
and then combine them in the optical domain. By tuning the
amplitude ratio between the two vector signals, the phase of
the combined signal can be adjusted [19]–[22], as shown in
Fig. 4. Reference [19] reported a typical optical vector-sum
FIGURE 3. (a-h) Two-dimensional responses of a 24-element array with
phase shifter, which is realized using two laser sources, a
different subarrays, in which useful frequency bands are highlighted. (i) phase modulator (PM) and an optical bandpass filter (OBPF).
Relationship between the relative bandwidth of the array and the number By setting the wavelengths of the two lasers at the two slope
of antenna elements in a subarray.
edges of the OBPF, phase modulation to intensity modulation
conversion is realized. Thanks to the nonlinear phase response
compensate for the differential time delays between the sub- of the OBPF, different phase shifts are introduced to the op-
arrays. Fig. 3(a)–3(h) depicts the simulated two-dimensional tical wavelengths and sidebands. After photodetection, two
responses of the array with different subarray scales, in which microwave signals with a phase difference can be obtained.
the numbers of antenna elements in one subarray are 1 (pure By adjusting the power of the laser sources, the amplitudes

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PAN ET AL.: MICROWAVE PHOTONIC ARRAY RADARS

FIGURE 4. Principle of vector-sum based phase shifter.

FIGURE 6. Performance comparison of the microwave photonic phase

shifters realized by the three methods in [19], [21], [23], [24], [29], [32],
[36], [40], and [45].

phase-correlated optical wavelengths [35]–[43]. After pho-

todetection, the optical phase difference would be mapped
to the phase of the generated microwave signal. In order to
introduce a phase difference to the two optical wavelengths, an
FBG is generally used to separate them into two branches, and
FIGURE 5. Principle of microwave photonic phase shifters based on SBS. an electro-optical PM is applied in one branch to adjust the
phase [36]. However, the spatial separation of the two optical
of the two microwave signals can be modified, leading to a wavelengths would deteriorate the stability of the system. To
tunable phase of the combined microwave signal at the output remedy this, a Sagnac loop incorporated with a PM and an
of the PD. The phase shifter has a large operation spectral FBG was employed [37], [38], in which two optical carriers
range of over 30–60 GHz. The optical vector-sum method is generated by the electrical-optical modulation are counter-
very simple, but it suffers from severe power variation, and propagated in the loop, experiencing the same environmental
the configuration is usually complex and unstable. variation. Thanks to the uni-traveling characteristics of the
The key to implementing slow-light-based microwave pho- PM, different phases are imposed on the two optical carri-
tonic phase shifters is to change the group delay index of the ers. Besides, this kind of microwave photonic phase shifters
transmission medium [23]–[31]. One such system is realized can also be realized when the two optical wavelengths are
based on the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) effect in separated in two sub-modulators [39], [40] of an integrated
a highly nonlinear medium [23]–[27]. The principle is illus- modulator or along with two orthogonal polarization direc-
trated in Fig. 5. When a probe light with a wavelength of tions of a polarization-sensitive modulator [35], [41]–[45]. By
fprobe and a pump light at fpump = fprobe + fB , where fB is controlling the DC bias of the electro-optical modulator or the
the Brillouin frequency shift, are injected into the fiber, SBS state-of-polarization of the signal, different phase shifts can
effect would be stimulated, of which an optical gain is excited be introduced to the two optical wavelengths. As a result, a
around fprobe accompanied with a violent phase variation. The microwave photonic phase shifter can be implemented.
phase is varied linearly versus the optical frequency around Fig. 6 shows the performance comparison of the microwave
fprobe , producing a time delay that is related to the slope of photonic phase shifters realized by the aforementioned meth-
the phase variation. By tuning the pump power to adjust the ods, in which the maximum phase shift, the operation band-
phase variation slope, the time delay, as well as the phase of width, and the power variation are considered. For all the three
the microwave signal, can be changed. Based on this principle, photonic phase-shifting methods, the maximum operation
an SBS-based microwave phase shifter was built with a phase bandwidth is typically limited by the bandwidth of the electro-
tuning range of 168 degree and an operating frequency range optical modulators (EOMs) and PDs, which can reach 50 GHz
over 1–18 GHz [23]. or more. Thus, the experimental demonstrations in Fig. 6 may
In addition to SBS, semiconductor optical amplifiers not reflect the large bandwidth provided by photonic systems.
(SOAs) [28]–[30], nonlinear optical loop mirrors [31], and In Fig. 6, it is also found that the optical heterodyne method
micro-ring resonators (MRRs) [32]–[34] can also be used can easily achieve full-360-degree phase-shifting while the
to implement slow-light based phase shifters. For exam- phase-shifting range of the other two methods is smaller.
ple, in [28], a microwave photonic phase shifter using three
SOAs and a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is established, which B. MICROWAVE PHOTONIC PHASE SHIFTER BASED
achieved a maximum phase shift of 360 degree over a 40-GHz BEAMFORMING NETWROK
frequency range [29]. Based on the broadband microwave photonic phase shifters, a
Optical heterodyne based microwave photonic phase shifter radar beamforming network with a broad spectral range can be
is usually realized by introducing a phase difference to two constructed. In this section, we show a typical beamforming

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FIGURE 7. (a) Schematic diagram of the microwave photonic phase shifter
based on polarization modulation; (b) Phase response of the phase shifter
at different polarization settings; (c) Output power as a function of the FIGURE 9. The simulated and experimentally measured radiation patterns
phase shift at different frequencies (the four curves are superimposed). of the phased array antenna when the angle of the beam is (a) −30°, (b)
0°, and (c) 30°. (The black-solid and the red-dotted curves are the
simulated and experimental results, respectively)

signal is split into N branches to build an N-channel phase

shifter. In each branch, a polarization controller (PC) and a
polarization beam splitter (PBS) are used to serve as a polar-
izer, which is tuned to adjust the phase shift of each channel.
An optical amplifier is connected in each channel to boost
the optical power. The N microwave phase shifters share the
same laser source and modulator, making the system compact
FIGURE 8. The schematic diagram of the phased array antenna based on and cost-effective. The obtained N phase-shifted microwave
the polarization-modulated microwave photonic phase shifter.
signals are emitted to the free space through an antenna array.
In the experimental demonstration, a 4-element linear patch
system constructed by a multi-channel microwave photonic antenna array and a 1×4 optical controlled beamforming net-
phase shifter realized based on electro-optical polarization work are employed to construct the phased array antenna.
modulations [44], [45]. The antenna array has a center frequency of 14 GHz and
Fig. 7(a) shows the configuration of the microwave pho- a 10-dB bandwidth of 500 MHz. Four phase-shifted signals
tonic phase shifter [45], which is consisted of a laser diode at the frequency of 14 GHz are generated by the 4-channel
(LD), a polarization modulator (PolM), an OBPF, a polarizer, microwave photonic phase shifter, which are radiated to the
and a PD. The LD, PolM, and OBPF are used to realize op- free space via the antenna array on an antenna turntable. By
tical single-sideband polarization modulation (OSSB-PolM) carefully setting the phase shifts of each radiated signal via
[46]. The OSSB-PolM signal is composed of two orthogonal- adjusting the four polarizers, different radiation patterns can
circularly polarized wavelengths that can be expressed as be obtained. Fig. 9 shows the measured radiation patterns
exp(jω1 t) (jx̂+ŷ) and exp(jω2 t) (-jx̂+ŷ), where ω1 and ω2 are (red-dotted curves) when the phase shifts are set to be [0°, 84°,
the angular frequencies. After a polarizer with a polarization 168°, −106°], [0°, 0°, 0°, 0°], and [0°, −84°, −168°, 106°],
direction of α to x-axis, the two orthogonal-circularly polar- which result in radiation angles of −30°, 0°, and 30°, respec-
ized wavelengths would change to exp(jω1 t+jα)+exp(jω2 t- tively. The simulated radiation patterns are also displayed as
jα). After photodetection, the phase difference 2α between the black-solid curves. As can be seen, all the main lobes of
the two wavelengths would be converted to the phase of the the measured radiation patterns agree well with the simulated
generated microwave signal. By adjusting the polarization radiation patterns, and the pointing directions are steered to
angle α of the polarizer, the phase of the obtained microwave the desired angles. The 3-dB widths of the main lobes are
signal can be continuously tuned from 0 to 360 degree. In a 30° (−45° to −15°), 26° (−13° to 13°), and 30° (15° to 45°),
proof-of-concept experiment, a full-range tunable phase shift respectively.
in a frequency range of 10–43 GHz was achieved, and the
power variation was kept within 1 dB, as shown in Figs. 7(b) IV. ARRAY RADAR BASED ON OPTICAL TRUE TIME
and (c). DELAYS
Based on the polarization-modulated microwave photonic True time delay technique is essential for broadband beam-
phase shifter, a phased array is established [47], as shown in forming in an array radar. The photonics-based true time delay
Fig. 8. Thanks to the excellent scalability of the polarization- technique has distinct advantages over electrical delay lines
modulated microwave photonic phase shifter, the OSSB-PolM thanks to the low transmission loss and the ultra-flat frequency

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FIGURE 10. Optical switch based true time delay module.

FIGURE 12. Optical true time delay based on a spatial light modulator
(SLM).

true time delay, in which different wavelengths are reflected

at different positions to introduce switchable delays [57].
The second method for obtaining optical true time delay
is to apply an optical dispersive element, which introduces
a wavelength-dependent true time delay. Different from the
optical path switching method, which produces discrete time
delays, the dispersion-based true time delay can be continu-
FIGURE 11. A typical wavelength-dependent true time delay module.
ously tuned by changing the optical wavelength. Typical dis-
persive devices for true time delay include single-mode fibers,
response of optical delay lines. In this section, the techniques linearly-chirped FBGs [58], [59], photonic crystal fibers [60],
for achieving optical true time delays are overviewed. A com- and few-mode fibers [61]. Together with the wavelength divi-
pact 2D optical beamforming network and a multi-band and sion multiplexing technique, multiple microwave signals car-
multi-beam array antenna are introduced. ried by different wavelengths can easily experience different
time delays within the same dispersion media. A potential
problem with this method is that a large dispersion would re-
A. OPTICAL TRUE TIME DELAY MODULES sult in frequency-dependent microwave power fading [62]. To
The basic function of optical true time delay modules is to address this problem, an optical single-sideband (SSB) modu-
control the time delay of optical signals carrying microwave lation technique can be applied [63], [64]. However, when us-
information. Previously, three typical approaches for imple- ing SSB modulation, the nonlinear phase-frequency response
menting the optical true time delay were reported, i.e., optical would lead to signal distortions, which can be compensated by
path switching, dispersive elements, and optical devices with connecting a series of multi-channel chirped FBGs with peri-
adjustable phase response. odic time delay response to an ordinarily chirped FBG. This
Switching the optical path with different lengths is an intu- way, a stepped time delay response without phase distortions
itive way to realize optical true time delay. The optical path can be achieved [65].
can be a free-space path [48] or an optical fiber [49]. To The third method for achieving optical true time delay is
achieve a large time delay with high resolution and reduced to modify the phase response of an optical device. Because
number of optical components, N optical switches can be group delay is equal to the derivative of phase with respect to
cascaded to achieve 2N time delays, as shown in Fig. 10. frequency, the true time delay can be realized if the slope of
The optical switch can be realized in a variety of ways, in- the phase response of an optical device is adjustable. Different
cluding electro-optical switch, magneto-optical switch [50], from the dispersive-element-based approach, lasers with fixed
thermo-optical switch [51], and micro-electromechanical sys- wavelengths can be applied in this method. Fig. 12 shows
tem (MEMS) switch [52]. Generally, optical switches with a a typical implementation based on a spatial light modulator
fast switching speed and a high extinction ratio are required. (SLM). Different frequency components of the input optical
The optical path switching based time delay can also be signal are first projected to different pixels of the SLM through
implemented using tunable lasers together with wavelength- a spatial dispersive device, such as an acousto-optic modulator
dependent true time delay devices [53], [54]. Fig. 11 shows [66] or a dispersive grating [67]. A linear phase-frequency
a typical implementation [55], [56], in which different wave- response is imposed on the optical signal by programming
lengths pass through different fiber lengths with the help of the phase of each pixel in the SLM. Then, all these optical
an optical wavelength-division multiplexer (WDM). Various frequency components are combined at the same dispersive
delays can be achieved by tuning the wavelength. In addition, device to get the time-delayed optical signal. Slow light effect
cascaded FBGs can also be used for wavelength-dependent is another way to achieve the adjustable phase response. The

182 VOLUME 1, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

 FIGURE 14. Typical responses of a TDE. TDE: tunable dispersive element.

delays, the differential wavelength between two adjacent laser

FIGURE 13. Schematic diagram of the compact photonic beamformer for
2D beam steering.
sources is set to be slightly different from the free spectral
range (FSR) of the TDE, which could account for the increas-
ing wavelength interval between the optical carriers and the
principle of slow light effect has already been introduced in corresponding channel centers, as shown in Fig. 14. Thus,
Section II. One critical problem of the slow light induced true step-time delays of signals with different optical carriers can
time delay is its Lorentzian-shaped profile, which is only fea- be controlled by adjusting the dispersion parameter of one
sible for handling narrow-band microwave signals. To over- TDE. In addition, if the wavelength offsets of several TDEs
come this problem, solutions to extend the bandwidth were in the beamformer are configured with step values, step-time
proposed. For example, by using a broadband optical pump delays can be achieved for signals with an identical optical
signal in the SBS-based slow light system, a true time delay carrier in different TDEs. Thanks to the thermal management,
of 230 ps for a microwave signal with 1-GHz instantaneous the dispersion parameter and the wavelength offset of the
bandwidth was achieved [68], [69]. TDE can be adjusted independently, which means step-time
delay control along with two directions and 2D beam steering
B. BROADBAND 2D BEAMFORMING can be realized without the need for a second-stage true time
The purpose of establishing an optical true time delay based delay unit. It should be noted that the maximum bandwidth of
broadband beamforming network is to simultaneously control this dispersion-based true-time delay is limited by the spectral
the time delays of multiple RF signals that is fed to or captured width of each passband of the TDE.
by an antenna array. Here we introduce a dispersion-based A photonic beamformer for a 2 × 2 planar array is es-
optical true time delay beamforming structure, in which the tablished. A pulsed RF signal is used as the driving signal
time delays are adjusted through tuning optical dispersive of the modulator. Four delayed RF signals from four PDs
elements. are recorded by an oscilloscope and are used to calculate the
For a planar array with antenna elements located along a radiation patterns of the array. Since the signal processed by
rectangular grid on the xOy plane, a qualified beamformer the photonic beamformer is a broadband one, the performance
is expected to implement tunable step-time delays along of the beamformer can be evaluated through a correlation-
both the Ox and the Oy axes so that the main lobe of the maximum pattern (CMP) which is defined by the peak value
array can be steered along both the elevation and the azimuth of the cross-correlation of the beamformer input and the far-
directions. To this end, we demonstrate a compact photonic field signal on a specific direction [17], [18]. Fig. 15 shows
RF beamformer with the schematic diagram shown in Fig. 13 the calculated 3D CMPs and the corresponding cross-sections
[70]. When applied to an M×N array, the beamformer with the target main lobe oriented to (θ , φ) = (45°, 135°)
contains M lasers with different wavelengths and N tunable and (θ , φ) = (30°, –60°). The results from the measured
dispersive elements (TDEs), which are thermally-tuned signals and the signals with ideal time delays are depicted
chirped FBGs. The optical carriers generated by the lasers as blue-solid curves and red-dashed curves, respectively. As
are combined and then modulated by an RF signal with an can be seen, the directions of the main lobes match well with
EOM. The obtained optical microwave signal is divided into the ideal ones, which verifies the feasibility of the proposed
N channels, and the signal in each channel is sent to a TDE beamformer.
for delay controlling. The output signals from each TDE are
separated into multiple channels by a WDM demultiplexer C. BROADBAND MULTI-BAND AND MULTI-BEAM
according to their wavelengths. Finally, delayed RF signals STEERING
serving as the feedings to the array are generated after The aforementioned photonic 2D beamformer has a compact
optical-to-electrical conversion at multiple PDs. structure but cannot steer multiple RF beams simultaneously.
The principle of the delay controlling in a TDE is illustrated We have also proposed another beamforming network that can
in Fig. 14. The group delay response of the TDE is periodic perform multi-beam steering. The network is mainly com-
and has multiple identical passbands. To implement step-time posed of an array of optical true time delay units, and each

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PAN ET AL.: MICROWAVE PHOTONIC ARRAY RADARS

FIGURE 15. Correlation-maximum pattern of the photonic 2D beamformer

with the main lobe steered to (a, c, e) (θ,φ) = (45°, 135°) and (b, d, f) (θ,φ) =
(30°,-60°). (a, b) 3D patterns; (c, d) cross-sections along θ-direction; (e, f)
cross-sections along φ-direction.

unit is capable of introducing different time delays to multiple

RF signals concurrently [71]. Fig. 16 shows the structure
of the proposed network. In the transmit mode, RF signals FIGURE 16. Concept of the multi-band and multi-beam steering network.
to be radiated are divided and sent to the optical true time
delay units. All the units share the same optical source which
is an optical frequency comb (OFC) consisting of plenty of
frequency components (i.e., the comb lines). In each unit, the
OFC is modulated by the RF signals through an EOM. Thanks
to the large number of wavelengths provided by the OFC, RF
signals with a variety of time delays can be achieved at the
output port of the dispersive element. Afterward, two stages of
filtering are implemented to assign different time delays to RF
signals with specific frequencies. The first one is implemented
in the optical domain using a programmable optical filter to
determine the time delay, while the second one is achieved by
microwave photonic filters (MPFs) with different passbands to
rejecting unwanted RF frequency components. The obtained
multiple RF signals are directed to the corresponding antenna
element for radiation. Similarly, in the receive mode, RF sig-
nals from each antenna element are processed by its corre-
sponding optical true time delay unit. The superposition of FIGURE 17. Detailed structure of the optical true time delay unit built in
the signals from different units is carried out in the electrical the experiment.

domain.
In order to demonstrate the concept of the multi-beam
steering network, an optical true time delay unit with two The time delay between the two taps is brought by a spool of
paths is built, of which the detailed structure is illustrated in polarization maintaining fiber (PMF). In MPF2, a polarization
Fig. 17. In the experimental unit, MPF1 has two taps with tap beam splitter (PBS) is employed to select the signal along
coefficients of {1, −1} to realizing high-pass response [72]. one polarization direction, which is then oriented to the two

184 VOLUME 1, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

FIGURE 18. Phase responses of (a) MPF1 (high-pass) and (b) MPF2
(low-pass); (c) corresponded time delays.

polarization axes of a PMF by carefully aligning its state-of-

polarization to have an angle of 45° to the principal axis of the FIGURE 19. Schematic diagram of the microwave photonic array radar for
target imaging; (b) Photograph of the target (a plane model); and (c) the
PMF. Thus, a two-tap MPF (MPF2) with in-phase coefficients
imaging result. AWG: arbitrary waveform generator; OSC: oscilloscope.
of {1, 1} is achieved to realize low-pass frequency response.
It should be noted that the modulator used in the optical true
time delay unit is a PolM, which means the responses of
the MPFs can be improved by moving the dispersion fading radiation are placed on a rotator with a constant angular speed,
nulls into unwanted frequency bands [73]. The performance which forms a simple geometric setup for ISAR imaging
of the optical true time delay unit is studied by measuring and could help to realize a higher azimuth resolution [75].
its complex-valued responses, i.e., magnitude responses and Echoes from targets are gathered by a single horn antenna.
phase responses, under different comb line selections. The The analog processing of the echoes is also carried out in
phase responses of the MPFs are depicted in Figs. 18(a) and the optical domain, in which the photonics-based de-chirp
(b), where they have a linear relationship with the RF fre- operation is employed to remarkably compress the bandwidth
quency. This proves that the optical true time delay unit is of the signal. Such operation can also convert time delays
broadband. The corresponding time delays can be calculated of the echoes to peaks in the spectrum [74]. The de-chirped
based on the phase responses, as shown in Fig. 18(c). The echoes are digitized by an oscilloscope, which enables ISAR
obtained time delay is proportional to the offset of the optical algorithms conducted in the digital domain [75].
wavelength, which is consistent with the expectation, and the In the experiment, the LFM signal radiated by the antenna
difference between the delay responses of MPF1 and MPF2 is array has a bandwidth of 3 GHz at the K-band, which is
negligible. achieved by frequency-quadrupling of a 750-MHz signal in
the C-band. The target used for imaging is a plane model,
D. DEMONSTRATION OF MICROWAVE PHOTONIC ARRAY of which the photograph is shown in Fig. 19(b). To verify
RADAR FOR IMAGING the effectiveness of the optical true time delay network, the
In order to demonstrate the high-performance target detection broadside direction of the array is set to deviate from the
of the microwave photonic array radar, we build up a pro- center of the rotator, and the delay parameters of the network
totype system with the structure shown in Fig. 19(a). High- are adjusted to steer the array main lobe to the target direction.
resolution inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging is The imaging result is provided in Fig. 19(c). As can be seen,
realized. A linear frequency modulated (LFM) signal gen- the profile of the obtained ISAR image matches well with the
erated from an arbitrary waveform generator is frequency- target, which could validate the feasibility of the microwave
quadrupled through a photonic frequency-multiplication ap- photonic array radar.
proach [74] and then sent to an optical true time delay net-
work. In the network, the signal is divided into 16 paths V. INTEGRATED MICROWAVE PHOTONIC ARRAY
with tunable time delays, of which the differential time delay Photonic integration is necessary to make the microwave pho-
between adjacent paths is determined by Eq. (4) in Section I. tonic arrays gain ground, which would lead to a similar or
The obtained 16 signals with preset time delays are used for even better size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) as
the feedings of a 16-element antenna array. Targets under compared with their electronic counterparts. Previously, many

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PAN ET AL.: MICROWAVE PHOTONIC ARRAY RADARS

works on integrated microwave photonics have been carried

out to facilitate the practical application of the microwave
photonic arrays. Thanks to the broadband beamforming capa-
bility, a lot of efforts have been devoted to construct integrated
optical true time delay arrays. Only a few works are conducted
for integrated arrays with microwave photonic phase shifters,
which are interesting for radars with wide frequency tuning
range but narrow instantaneous bandwidth. As an example, C.
Porzi et al. demonstrated an integrated microwave photonic
phase shifter based on the silicon on insulator (SOI) technol-
ogy [76], which has a broad operational spectral range (>30
GHz), a large phase tuning range (up to 400 degree) and a fast
switching speed (∼1 ns).
For integrated optical true time delay arrays, different mate-
rials have been used to fabricate the integrated delay element,
such as silicon, lithium niobate, polymer, silicon nitride, sili-
con dioxide, and SOI. The basic principles are similar to those
FIGURE 20. State-of-the-art of the integrated optical true time delays.
introduced in Section IV, which can be classified again into
three categories.
In the first category, optical true time delays are achieved
by integrated optical switches and waveguides with different
lengths. For instance, a 4-bit reconfigurable true time delay multiple ring resonators with different resonant frequencies.
chip was fabricated using four thermo-optical switches and For example, twelve weakly coupled polymer ring resonators
a number of silicon nitride waveguides [77]. The chip has a are cascaded in [90] to extend the operational bandwidth to
size of 4.5 cm × 8.5 cm, but the time delay can reach 2.35 17 GHz. A tunable true time delay between 110 ps and 140
ns. Similarly, using thermo-optical switches and silicon delay ps is achieved. In addition, by incorporating a reflector to the
lines, a 7-bit true time delay was achieved on a 7.4 mm × 1.8 drop port of the MRR, a new type true time delay element
mm chip, which could produce a maximum delay of 191.37 ps with broadband group-delay response can be formed using a
[78]. In addition to the thermo-optical switches, MEMS-based single resonator [91], [92]. The optical true time delay can
switches can also be integrated on a chip [79], [80]. The key also be realized by on-chip SBS-based slow-light [93], [94],
problem associated with the thermo-optical and MEMS-based by which a delay of 4 ns was achieved.
switches is their relatively slow switching speed, which is usu- Fig. 20 shows the state-of-the-art of the integrated optical
ally on the order of microsecond or millisecond. To achieve true time delays. It should be noted that the bandwidth of
fast tuning speed, integrated optical true time delay based on the optical true time delay line itself, no matter based on
electro-optical switches was also demonstrated [81], [82], in dispersive waveguide [113], [114] or waveguide with different
which the switching time was reduced to several nanoseconds. length [78], [109]–[113], can be extremely high, since it is es-
The second kind of integrated optical true time delay is sentially frequency insensitive. When it is co-integrated with
implemented by optical wavelength switching, typically in other electrooptic devices to realize a phased array radar, the
an array waveguide grating (AWG). In the AWG, different upper limit of the operation bandwidth is finally determined
wavelengths pass through different channels with different by the electrooptic devices, e. g., the EOM or PD, which
optical lengths, enabling different true time delays. With this is typically lower than 40 GHz. As indicated by the results
method, a 4-bit true time delay of up to 600 ps is achieved in Fig. 20, significant achievements have been achieved in
based on a perfluoropolymer optical integration platform [83]. recent years. However, the integrated optical true time delay
In [84], by switching the optical wavelength over a 10-nm is still facing a key problem of how to realize large time
range in an SOI-based AWG, 2D beam scanning in the range delay in a limited area. Moreover, for different techniques,
of 15° × 50° was achieved. In another work, beam steering the key issues to be solved are usually different. For exam-
with a 186° scanning-angle range for a 38-GHz microwave ple, for the methods realized by switching between multiple
signal was demonstrated using the integrated AWG [85]. physical paths, the low-loss optical waveguide is essential.
Integrated ring resonators are promising elements for build- Although the transmission loss of some specialized Si3 N4
ing optical true time delay chips [86]–[88]. By thermally tun- (Si3 N4 /SiO2 ), silicon (Silicon-pillars-supported structures),
ing the coupling coefficient and the cavity length of the ring SOI (thick SOI), and LiNbO3 -on-insulator (using photolithog-
resonators [89], the slope of the linear phase response around raphy) waveguide reaches 0.45 dB/m [116], 0.08 ± 0.01 dB/m
the resonant frequency can be changed, producing a tunable [117], 2.6 dB/m [118], and 3 dB/m [112], respectively, most
true time delay. It should be noted that the bandwidth of the of them are not compatible with the mature CMOS foundry,
single ring resonator is usually small due to the Lorentzian- which leads to low yield, high fabrication cost and limited
shaped profile. This problem can be solved by cascading availability.

186 VOLUME 1, NO. 1, JANUARY 2021

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[117] H. Lee, T. Chen, J. Li, O. Painter, and K. Vahala, “Ultra-low-loss XINGWEI YE (Student Member, IEEE) received
optical delay line on a silicon chip,” Nature Commun., vol. 3, no. 1, the B.S. degree in 2014 from the Nanjing Uni-
pp. 1–7, 2012. versity of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing,
[118] G. Li et al., “Ultralow-loss, high-density SOI optical waveguide China, where he is currently working toward the
routing for macrochip interconnects,” Opt. Exp., vol. 20, no. 11, Ph.D. degree with the Key Laboratory of Radar
pp. 12035–12039, 2012. Imaging and Microwave Photonics, Ministry of
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vol. 23, no. 11, pp. 14018–14026, 2015.

YAMEI ZHANG (Member, IEEE) received the

SHILONG PAN (Senior Member, IEEE) received B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Nanjing University of
the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electronic engineer- Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China, in
ing from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, in 2012 and 2018, respectively.
2004 and 2008, respectively. She is currently with the Key Laboratory of
From 2008 to 2010, he was a ’Vision 2010’ Radar Imaging and Microwave Photonics and
Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Microwave the Ministry of Education, Nanjing University
Photonics Research Laboratory, University of Ot- of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China.
tawa, Canada. He joined the College of Electronic Her research interests include microwave photonic
and Information Engineering, Nanjing University signal generation and processing, and ultra-fast
of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China, in 2010, microwave photonics.
where he is currently a Full Professor and an Ex-
ecutive Director of the Key Laboratory of Radar Imaging and Microwave
Photonics, Ministry of Education. He has authored or coauthored more than
400 research papers, including more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed jour-
nals and 200 papers in conference proceedings. His research interests include
microwave photonics, which includes optical generation and processing of
microwave signals, analog photonic links, photonics microwave measure- FANGZHENG ZHANG (Senior Member, IEEE)
ment, and integrated microwave photonics. received the B.S. degree from Huazhong Univer-
Prof. Pan is currently an Associate Editor of Electronics Letters, a Topical sity of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China, in
Editor of Chinese Optics Letters, and is a Technical Committee member 2008, and the Ph.D. degree from Beijing University
of IEEE MTT-22 Microwave Photonics. He was a Chair of a number of of Posts and Telecommunications, Beijing, China,
international conferences, symposia, and workshops, including the TPC Chair in 2013.
of the International Conference on Optical Communications and Networks He is currently a Professor with the Key Labo-
in 2015, and TPC Co-Chair of the IEEE International Topical Meeting on ratory of Radar Imaging and Microwave Photonics
Microwave Photonics in 2017. He is a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, and IET. He and the Ministry of Education, Nanjing University
was selected as an IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer in 2019 of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, China.
and 2020. His current research interest includes microwave
photonics, radar imaging, and machine learning.

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