Joint communication and radar sensing functions system based on photonics at the W-band

The photonics-based technology has the advantages of wide bandwidth in millimeter wave (mm-wave) communication and radar sensing systems. In the present work, we propose a novel joint communication and radar sensing functions system based on photonics at the W-band. In the proposed system, the broadband linear frequency modulated (LFM) signal and high-speed M-quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) signal are simultaneously obtained by heterodyning two free-running external cavity lasers (ECLs). Based on this system, a communication rate of 78 Gbit/s and a radar with a 5-GHz bandwidth is achieved. This is a good solution to incorporate a high-speed communication and high-resolution radar sensing functions system.