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Millimeter-wave radar is expected to become a core element of next-generation communications. As 6G systems evolve toward combining connectivity and sensing in a single architecture, radar modules will need to deliver higher resolution, faster processing, and much smaller footprints than today’s electronic designs can support. A new breakthrough from researchers at the City University of Hong Kong aims to solve that challenge with an integrated photonic radar chip no larger than a coin.
According to TechXplore, traditional electronic millimeter-wave radars face an inherent limitation: as frequency increases, it becomes harder to maintain a broad bandwidth and high precision without relying on large, power-hungry components. The new approach reframes the problem by generating and processing radar signals as optical signals. Photonic systems naturally support wider bandwidths, making them ideal for high-resolution ranging and velocity detection.
The research team has demonstrated the first integrated photonic radar capable of operating in the V-band (around 45 GHz) with a 10-GHz bandwidth, which is enough to support detailed imaging through techniques such as inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR). Both signal generation and echo processing take place on a single thin-film lithium niobate chip, eliminating the need for high-speed digital-to-analog and analog-to-digital converters that typically drive-up cost and size.
By integrating these capabilities on a photonic platform, the system significantly reduces complexity while improving precision. The design can be manufactured on standard 10-cm wafers, allowing for lower per-unit costs and scalable production—important factors for widespread deployment in consumer, industrial, and security environments.
In practice, such radar-on-chip systems could serve as a key sensing layer in emerging 6G networks. Devices equipped with this technology would gain real-time environmental awareness for applications like indoor navigation, automated driving, asset tracking, and health monitoring. For defense and homeland security sectors, compact high-resolution radars open the door to new capabilities in perimeter protection, unmanned systems, and urban sensing, where size-constrained platforms often struggle to carry traditional radars.
As sensing and communication converge in next-generation networks, integrated photonic radars offer a path toward smaller, more capable, and more energy-efficient systems. This breakthrough illustrates how future devices may rely on optical rather than electronic architectures to understand and respond to their environment with far greater precision.
The research was published here.
