Optoelectronic arbitrary-waveform generator for radar applications

An optoelectronic arbitrary-waveform generator has been proposed and experi mentally developed for radar applications. It permits generating predefined waveforms by driving the amplitudes and phase shifts of optically carried microwave signals. The optical architecture combines a high-resolution freq uency shifter (for the heterodyne generation of the microwave signal) with spatial light modulators (for the parallel control of amplitudes and phases ). Such a waveform generator can be attractive for target recognition or fo r target simulation. (C) 2000 Society of Photo-Optical instrumentation Engi neers. [S0091-3286(00)03112-3].