Fiber-optic remoting of an ultrahigh dynamic range radar

We demonstrate, for the first time, fiber-optic remoting of an X-band radar with ultrahigh dynamic range, and show that photonic components can meet t he stringent phase noise requirements for remoting modern radars. Fiber opt ic links were designed and built to remote the antenna and transmitter of t he AN/SPQ-9B Advanced Development Model radar. The remoting links tested su ccessfully in both transmit and receive configurations without significantl y degrading the measured, postintegration, 87-dB signal-to-noise ratio of t he radar. The results show the potential of photonic technology to remote t he transmitter/receiver modules of active array radars.