Photonic Measurement for Doppler Frequency Shift and Angle of Arrival Based on a Dual-Polarization Dual-Drive Mach–Zehnder Modulator

Abstract

A novel photonic-assisted system for realizing the simultaneous measurement of Doppler frequency shift (DFS) and angle of arrival (AOA) is proposed. It is a simplified structure that is based on a dual-polarization dual-drive Mach–Zehnder modulator (DPol-DDMZM). The DFS direction can be accurately determined by comparing the phase relationship between the upper and lower low-frequency signal waveforms. An amplitude comparison function (ACF), which constructs a one-to-one mapping between the power ratio and the phase difference of echo microwave signals, can reduce the AOA measurement errors. The simulation results show that the simulated ACFs agree well with the theoretical ACFs, and the measurement errors of AOA are less than ±2.8° in a range of 0° to 78°. Moreover, the DFS can be realized by analyzing the spectrum of the low-frequency electrical signal with a measurement error of less than ±0.05 Hz. The system structure is compact and cost-effective, which provides an alternative solution for modern radar and electronic warfare receivers.

Keywords

• Doppler frequency shift
• angle of arrival
• microwave photonics
• dual-parallel dual-dual Mach–Zehnder modulator