TE (ETC) Sem-6 (RC 2019-20) : Radar System Engineering

UNIT-1

1. INTRODUCTION:

The name Radar stands for Radio Detection and Ranging

Radar is a remote sensing technique, Capable of gathering information about

objects located at remote distances from the sensing device.

Radar is an electromagnetic system for the detection and location of objects

(Radio Detection and Ranging). Radar operates by transmitting a particular type
of waveform and detecting the nature of the signals reflected back from objects.

2. Simple Radar – Block Diagram

Fig.1: Basic block of Radar

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The elemental radar system consists of a transmitter unit, an antenna for emitting
electromagnetic radiation and receiving the echo signal, an energy detecting receiver and
a processor. The most basic form of radar is shown in Fig.1.
A portion of the transmitted signal is intercepted by a reflecting object (target) and is
reradiated in all directions. The antenna collects the returned energy in the backscatter
direction and delivers it to the receiver. The distance to the receiver is determined by
measuring the time taken for the electromagnetic signal to travel to the target and back.

3. IMPROVED RADAR

Fig.2: Improved Radar System

A modified block diagram is shown in Fig. 2 which has another important block called the
duplexer.
The functions of a duplexer are:
1. To isolate the transmitter and receiver during transmission and reception.
2. To protect the receiver from high power transmitter and
3. To help use a single transmitter/receiver antenna.

Such a radar where a single antenna is used for both transmitting and receiving is called a
monostatic radar, which is most usual form of radar.

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4. The Radar Range Equation:

The radar range equation relates the range of the radar to the
characteristics of the transmitter, receiver, antenna, target and the environment.

It is used as a tool to help in specifying radar subsystem specifications in

the design phase of a program. If the transmitter delivers PT Watts into an isotropic
antenna, then the power density (w/m2) at a distance R from the radar is
Pt/4πR2

Here the 4πR2 represents the surface area of the sphere at distance R

Radars employ directional antennas to channel the radiated power Pt in a

particular direction. The gain G of an antenna is the measure of the increased
power radiated in the direction of the target, compared to the power that would
have been radiated from an isotropic antenna

∴ Power density from a directional antenna = PtG/4πR2

The target intercepts a portion of the incident power and redirects it in

various directions. The measure of the amount of incident power by the target and
redirected back in the direction of the radar is called the cross section σ.

Hence the Power density of the echo signals at the radar =

Note: the radar cross-section σ has the units of area. It can be thought of as the
size of the target as seen by the radar.

The receiving antenna effectively intercepts the power of the echo signal
at the radar over a certain area called the effective area Ae.

Since the power density (Watts/m2) is intercepted across an area Ae, the
power delivered to the receiver is

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Now the maximum range Rmax is the distance beyond which the target cannot be
detected due to insufficient received power Pr, the minimum power which the
receiver can detect is called the minimum detectable signal S min. Setting, Pr = Smin
and rearranging the above equation gives

Note here that we have both the antenna gain on transmit and its effective area on
receive. These are related by:

As long as the radar uses the same antenna for transmission and reception we have

5. Pulse Radar - Block Diagram and Operation

Fig.3: Block Diagram of Pulse Radar

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The block diagram in Fig.3 shows the main components of pulse radar and their operation.
The transmitter may be an oscillator, such as a magnetron, which is pulsed (turned on and
off) by the modulator to generate a repetitive train of pulses. The waveform generated by
the transmitter travels along a transmission line to the antenna,
which is generally used for both transmitting and receiving. The duplexer consists of two
devices, one known as TR (Transmit-Receive) and the other as ATR (Anti-Transmit-
Receive). The TR protects the delicate circuits of the receiver from the high power of the
transmitter during transmission and the ATR channels the returned echo signal to the
receiver, and not to the transmitter, during reception. The first stage of the receiver is a
low-noise RF (radio frequency) amplifier. The mixer and the local oscillator convert the RF
signal to an IF (intermediate frequency) signal. This signal is passed through an IF amplifier
which is designed to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio at its output. The pulse modulation
of the echo signal is extracted by the detector and amplified by the video amplifier to a level
at which the signal can be properly displayed on a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube). Timing
signals are also supplied for range reference. Angle information is obtained from the
pointing direction of the antenna.
The most common form of the CRT display is the PPI (Plan Position Indicator), which maps
(in polar coordinates) the location of the target in azimuth and range.

6. Radar Frequencies

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 7. Applications of Radars

General Applications
1. Ground-based radar is applied chiefly to the detection, location and tracking of aircraft
of space targets.
2. Shipborne radar is used as a navigation aid and safety device to locate shorelines and
other ships. It is also used to observe aircraft.
3. Spaceborne radar is used for the remote sensing of terrain and sea.
4. Airborne radar is used to detect aircraft, ships and land vehicles. It is also used for
mapping of terrain and avoidance of thunderstorms and terrain.

Major Applications:

1. Air Traffic Control (ATC): Radar used to provide air traffic controllers with position and
other information on aircraft flying within their area of responsibility (airways and in the
vicinity of airports). The high resolution radar is used at large airports to monitor aircraft
and ground vehicles on the runways, taxiways and ramps. The GCA (ground controlled
approach) or PAR (precision approach radar) provides on operator with high accuracy
aircraft position information in both the vertical and horizontal. The operator uses this
information to guide the aircraft to a landing in bad weather. The MLS (microwave landing
system) and ATC radar beacon systems are based on radar technology.
2. Air Navigation: The weather avoidance radar is used on aircraft to detect and display
areas of heavy precipitation and turbulence. Low-flying military aircraft rely on terrain
avoidance and terrain following radars to avoid colliding with obstructions or high terrain.
Military aircraft employ ground-mapping radars to image a scene. The radio altimeter is
also a radar used to indicate the height of an aircraft above the terrain and as a part of self
contained guidance system over land.
3. Ship Safety: There are one of the least expensive, most reliable and largest applications
of radar. Radar is found on ships and boats for collision avoidance and to observe
navigation buoys, especially when the visibility is poor. The automatic detection and
tracking equipments are available with these radars for collision avoidance. Similarly shore
based radars of moderate resolution are used from harbour surveilliance.

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4. Space: Radars are used for rendezvous and dockign and was used for landing on the
moon. The large ground based radars are used for detection and tracking of satellites. The
satellite-borne radars used for remote sensing (SAR, Synthetic Aperture Radar).
5. Remote Sensing: All radars are remote sensors, and used for sensing geophysical
objects (the environment). The radar astronomy are used to probe the moon and planets.
The earth resources monitoring radars measure and map sea conditions, water resources,
ice cover, agricultural land use, forest conditions, geological formations, environmental
pollution (Synthetic Aperture Radar, SAR and Side Looking Airborne Radar, SLAR).
6. Law Enforcement: The radar speed meter, familiar to many, is used by police for
enforcing speed limits. Radar has been considered for making vehicles safer by warning
of ponding collision, actuating the air bag, or warning of obstructions or people behind a
vehicle or in the side blind zone. It is also employed for detection of intruders.
7. Military: Radar is an important part of air-defence systems as well as the operation of
offensive missiles and other weapons. In air defence it performs the functions of
surveillance and weapon control. Surveillance includes target detection, target recognition,
target tracking, and designation to a weapon system. Weapon-control radars track targets,
direct the weapon to an intercept, and assess the effectiveness of the engagement (called
battle damage assessment). A missile system might employ radar methods for guidance
and fuzing of the weapon. High resolution imaging radars, such as synthetic aperture radar,
have been used for reconnaissance purpose and for detecting
fixed and moving targets on the battle field.

8. RADAR PERFORMANCE FACTORS

The Range: Study of Radar equation shows that received echo power is inversely
proportional to the fourth power of the range R. Thus in order to double the range, a 16-
fold increase in peak power PT is needed. Alternatively, the range may be increased by
increasing the physical size of antenna. Equation shows that the range Rmax varies
directly as the square root of the capture area A of the antenna. The range may be
increased by reducing the wavelength. Lastly the range Rmax may be increased by
reducing the minimum power Smin. The decrease in Smin may be achieved by improving
the noise figure of the radar receiver.

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Transmitter Power: In case the radar range is to be doubled, we have to increase the
transmitter power 16 times

Frequency: Increase in frequency increase the range. However this requirement is in

conflict with the dependance of beam width of the antenna which is directly proportional to
the wavelength λ.

Pulse Repetition Frequency: As the pulse repetition frequency (PRF) is increased, the
maximum value of two way travel time decreases and hence the maximum range
decreases. Thus maximum allowable pulse repetition frequency is limited by the effective
range of the radar set. On the other hand, the PRF should not be below certain minimum
value so that effective integration of weak echo pulses may take place, due to greater
number of pulses received per second.

The range beyond which targets appear as second-time around echos is called “Maximum
Unambiguous Range”.

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 9. Minimum Detectable Signal
The ability of a radar receiver to detect a weak echo signal is limited by the noise energy occupying
the portion of the frequency spectrum which is also occupied by the signal energy. The weakest
signal the receiver can detect is Smin (minimum detectable signal).

Figure 1: Output of a typical radar receiver on an A-scope display

Detection is usually done by specifying a threshold at the output of the receiver. If the signal exceeds
this threshold then a target is assumed to be present. This is known as threshold detection.

The harmful effect of noise arises from the fact that the threshold level has to be raised to avoid
spurious signals, thus causing non-detection of signal which might have been otherwise detected.
The signal at C (Fig.1) illustrates this point. This type of signal is called Missed detection.

If the threshold level had been lower the receiver would have detected the signal.
Weak signals such as C would riot be lost if the threshold level were lower. But too low a threshold
increases the likelihood that noise alone will rise above the threshold and be taken for a real signal.
Such an occurrence is called a false alarm.

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Therefore, if the threshold is set too low, false target indications are obtained, but if it is set too high,
targets might be missed. The selection of the proper threshold level is a compromise that depends
upon how important it is if a mistake is made either by –
(1) failing to recognize a signal that is present (probability of z miss) or by
(2) falsely indicating the presence of a signal when none exists (probability of a false alarm).

10. Integration of Radar Pulses

• The process of summing all the radar echo pulses for the purpose of improving detection is
called Integration.
• Integration may be accomplished in the radar receiver either before the second detector (in
the IF) or after the second detector (in the video).
• Integration before the detector is called Pre-detection or coherent integration.
• While integration after the detector is called Post-detection or non-coherent integration.
• Predetection integration requires that the phase of the echo signal be preserved if full benefit
is to be obtained from the summing process.
• On the other hand, phase information is destroyed by the second detector; hence
postdetection integration is not concerned with preserving RF phase.
• For this convenience, postdetection integration is not as efficient as predetection integration.
• If n pulses, all of the same signal-to-noise ratio, were integrated by an ideal predetection
integrator, the resultant, or integrated, signal-to-noise (power) ratio would be exactly n times
that of a single pulse.
• If the same n pulses were integrated by an ideal postdetection device, the resultant signal-
to-noise ratio would be less than n times that of a single pulse.
• This loss in integration efficiency is caused by the nonlinear action of the second detector,
which converts some of the signal energy to noise energy in the rectification process.
• The comparison of pre-detection and post-detection integration may be summarized as:
- Although postdetection integration is not as efficient as predctection integration, it is
easier to implement in most applications.
- Postdetection integration is therefore preferred, even though the integrated signal-to-
noise ratio may not be as great.

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