Microwave Photonic Approach to Antenna Remote on Airborne Radar Warning Receiver System

A new topology for a Radar Warning Receiver (RWR) system based on Microwave Photonic (MWP) link to replace the existing RF coaxial transmission line is proposed. It is presented and demonstrated by a theoretical and experimental microwave photonic link performance characterization. Pre amplified fiber link of -0.5 dB gain, noise figure (NF) of 7 dB and Spurious Free Dynamic Range (SFDR) of 109 dB.Hz
^2/3
is experimentally demonstrated. By using a two-channel airborne RWR receiver front-end we demonstrate the concept and compare it with a conventional coaxial cable topology, using a radar pulse input signal of -43 dBm and measure the video detected pulse at the front-end output. The Tangential Signal Sensitivity (TSS) level was achieved for radar Radio Frequency (RF) input power of -45.5 dBm, just 1 dB higher than the coaxial approach.