RADIO FREQUENCY SIGNAL TRANSCEIVER, COHERENT RADAR RECEIVER AND METHOD OF PROCESSING RADIO FREQUENCY SIGNALS

摘要

An RF signal transceiver (10) comprising: a mode-locked laser (12) to output an optical signal having a plurality of phase-locked modes; an optical splitter (14) to power split the optical signal into a transmitter optical signal (16) and a receiver optical signal (18); transmitter apparatus (20) to receive the transmitter optical signal and comprising: an optical filter (22) to select two of the modes; an optical modulator (24) to modulate a part of the transmitter optical signal to form at least one phase modulated optical signal; and a photodetector (28) to heterodyne the phase modulated optical signal with one of the modes without a corresponding phase modulation to form an RF signal (30) for transmission; and receiver apparatus (40) arranged to receive an RF signal (42) and the receiver optical signal and comprising: an optical modulator (44) to modulate the receiver optical signal with the received RF signal; and optical to electrical signal conversion apparatus (46) to convert the modulated receiver optical signal into a corresponding electrical signal (48).