Microwave Photonic Dual-Beam Transmit-Receive Shared Beamforming System

SHI Fangjing

doi:10.11999/JEIT260772

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SHI Fangjing. Microwave Photonic Dual-Beam Transmit-Receive Shared Beamforming System[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260772

Citation:

SHI Fangjing. Microwave Photonic Dual-Beam Transmit-Receive Shared Beamforming System[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260772

SHI Fangjing. Microwave Photonic Dual-Beam Transmit-Receive Shared Beamforming System[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260772

Citation:

SHI Fangjing. Microwave Photonic Dual-Beam Transmit-Receive Shared Beamforming System[J]. Journal of Electronics & Information Technology. doi: 10.11999/JEIT260772

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Microwave Photonic Dual-Beam Transmit-Receive Shared Beamforming System

doi: 10.11999/JEIT260772 cstr: 32379.14.JEIT260772

SHI Fangjing^,

Southwest China Institute of Electronic and Technology, Chengdu 610036, China

Received Date: 2026-06-09
Accepted Date: 2026-10-16
Rev Recd Date: 2026-10-16

Available Online: 2026-10-26

Abstract

Abstract

Objective Traditional phased array radar suffers from beam squint during wide-band and wide-angle scanning, a problem that severely constrains the scanning accuracy, real-time performance, and reliability of the radar system, thereby compromising its practical application effectiveness in demanding scenarios such as military reconnaissance, aerospace, and intelligent transportation systems. In military contexts in particular, this limitation makes it difficult for existing radar systems to meet the requirements of modern combat and surveillance for high precision and wide coverage. In view of this, there is an urgent need to develop an innovative beamforming mechanism to overcome the limitations of traditional approaches in terms of hardware resource redundancy, scanning flexibility, and anti-jamming capability. Therefore, a microwave photonic dual-beam transceiver-shared beamforming system is proposed in this paper. By optimizing the hardware architecture and incorporating dispersive delay and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques, this system achieves simultaneous dual-beam scanning without beam squint, thereby providing critical theoretical support and a technical pathway for enhancing the overall performance of radar systems. Methods The microwave photonic dual-beam transceiver-shared beamforming system consists of three parts: the radio frequency (RF) front-end, the optically controlled beamforming network, and the broadband antenna. In this system, the optically controlled beamforming network adopts a dispersion-based time-delay method, in which two optical signals with different central wavelengths can generate two distinct time delays within the same dispersive medium. Therefore, based on the WDM approach, by properly setting the initial wavelength values and adjusting the wavelengths of two tunable lasers at equal intervals, two sets of independent proportional delays can be obtained, thereby enabling independent control of two beams. Furthermore, by rationally designing the architecture of the receiving, transmitting, and transceiver modules within the RF front-end, and employing strategies such as duplexing and time-division switching, transceiver sharing can be achieved using the same system. Finally, a broadband Vivaldi antenna is employed for the reception and radiation of wide-spectrum signals. In the future, the number of beams can be expanded by increasing the number of optical sources and RF front-end modules. Results and Discussions The microwave photonic dual-beam transceiver-shared beamforming system enables time-division multiplexing of dual-channel transmitting and receiving beamforming based on a single set of hardware. A 2×8 transceiver-shared platform is constructed for experimental validation. Experimental results demonstrate that the system achieves independent dual-beam spatial scanning without beam squint over a frequency range of 15 GHz to 26 GHz, with a scanning coverage of ±52°. In the transmitting state, when Beam 1 operates at a frequency of 22 GHz, the main-to-sidelobe suppression ratio of the radiation pattern is approximately 13 dB for beam steering directions of ±52°, ±30°, and ±4° (Fig. 11). In the transmitting state, when Beam 1 and Beam 2 operate at frequencies of 15 GHz and 26 GHz, respectively, the radiation pattern at a steering direction of 35° exhibits no beam squint (Fig. 12), demonstrating wideband operation capability. In the receiving state, with the operating frequencies of Beam 1 and Beam 2 unchanged, the radiation pattern at a steering direction of –42° similarly shows no beam squint (Fig. 13). Conclusions This paper employs the same set of hardware resources to achieve dual-beam transceiver-shared beamforming based on dispersion-based delay and WDM technology, and develops a prototype system, thereby addressing the beam squint issue inherent in traditional phased array radar under wideband wide-angle scanning. Experimental results demonstrate that:(1) The optical true time delay method based on the dispersion regime offers real-time tunability, and its combination with WDM technology can effectively expand the number of delay channels;(2) The beamforming system based on optical true time delay exhibits no frequency-dependent beam squint and is capable of wideband (15 GHz–26 GHz) and wide-angle (±52°) operation;(3) The proposed optically controlled beamforming architecture enables time-division switching between transmitting and receiving modes, and dual-beam transmission or dual-beam reception scanning can be achieved through the expansion of optical sources.
- Microwave photonic,
- Phased array,
- Beamforming,
- Dispersion

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References(25)

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