Implementation of new technologies in radar systems

Abstract

Future radar systems employ new RF and digital technologies that increase their functionality and performance. These changes in the radar system design include zero-IF receivers, software radio implementations and employ computationally intense radar data processing. New functionalities of the radar include high resolution imaging, new multiple waveform designs, resource management and new radar system designs employ digital T/R modules. To investigate the feasibility of utilizing new digital technologies in a radar system, a low demand modulation scheme of a SSR (secondary surveillance radar) system was chosen. The receiver was realized with a CMOS gain controlled 110 dB amplifier, zero-IF quadrature mixer along with a software radio detection design that was implemented with a flexible FPGA (field programmable gate array), also implemented in CMOS. This type of work allow the adaptation of computationally intense requirements of active digital array radars empowering radar system designers to implement new detection schemes, increase dynamic management of RF energy and processing resources thereby enhancing nominal radar performance.