Prospects of High Power Millimeter Wave Radar

 A. Tolkachev , B. Levitan

JSC «Radio Physics», Moscow

M. Petelin Institute of Applied Physics, Nizhny Novgorod

Advantage of MMW radar

HIGH PRECISION:

• favorable relation between antenna diameter and beamwidth

• high range resolution, if relative bandwidth is fixed

D

~

B

cr

2~

Difficulties of MMW radar

• wave absorption by atmosphere:

0.05 dB/km at Ka band,

0.4 dB/km at W band;

• wave scattering by rain and snow.

Dry high sites are preferable

Natural applications of MMW radar:

• short distance radar,

• cloud radar,

• space surveillance radar (elevation angles over 20 degrees,

detection range up to 2000 km)

The last one needs the highest power.

MMW radar transmitters

• Entirely solid-state phased arrays are capable to radiate only relatively low powers.

• High powers can be produced by transmitters with final cascades based on vacuum tubes.

HPMMW radarname country,

start time

Frequency band

Antenna, diameter

Output amplifiers

Number of tracked targets

"Alcor" USA,

1983

Ka, W Dish,

14 m

TWTs

2 × 50 kW

1

"Ruza" USSR,

1989

(X), Ka PAA,

7.2 m

Gyroklyst

2 × 500 kW

10

"Warloc" USA,

2000

W Dish

2.5 m

Gyroklyst

100 kW

1

"HUSIR" USA,

2009

(X), W Dish,

36 m

Gyrotwist

4 × 50 kW

1

“SUFFA” RussiaUzbekistan

????

Ka, W Dish,

70 m

Gyroamps 1

HEMISPHERIC COVERAGE RADAR COMPLEX:

X-band “ARGUN” & Ka-band “RUZA”

34 GHz /1 MW

semi-active phased array

Elementary transmit-receive

Cossegrain module

MM

M

M

1 30 31 60

1:311:31 1:31 1:31

1:2

61 90 91 120 BFN

1:2

P

M

. . . 1201

R to receiver

input 1from transmitter

input 2from transmitter

to transmitter

... ... ... ...

Radome

Antenna modules

.

M

M - spurios mode filter - motor-operated phase shifter - electronic ferrite phase shifter

фазовращатель ферритовый - phase discriminator - low-noise amplifier

- motor-operated switch- termination- joint rotary

P - orthomode transduser unit - transmit-receive switch.

«Ruza» «Ruza» performancperformanc

ee Detection range for 1 m2 RCS 1300 km

Angular RMS accuracy 0.2

Electronic-steering sector 50

Simultaneously tracked targets 30

target returns plasma trace returns

km

km

km

km

km

km

km

H [km]

H [km] V=5 km/s, σ2R=7m2, T=0.1 s

γ [m2/kg]

Oscillograms of the tracked reentry vehicles returns

Theoretical and experimental discrimination height of observed target as a function

of its ballistic coefficient

Realization of plasma trace returns with regard to tracked reentry vehicle returns

Radar data and theoretical estimates obtained on the data reveal the possibility of discriminating the multiple ballistic target

at the height none the less (target reentry elevation 30o , velocity 5 km/s) :

Inflatable reference reflector – 125 kmLight decoys – 90 – 110 kmAirframes and motor cases – 75 km

Velocity lag of plasma trace Velocity lag of plasma trace fromfrom

reentry vehicle measuredreentry vehicle measuredby by ««RuzaRuza»» radar radar

Velocity lag of plasma trace Velocity lag of plasma trace fromfrom

reentry vehicle measuredreentry vehicle measuredby by ««RuzaRuza»» radar radar

«RUZA» radar

PLASMA TRACE RETURNS

REENTRY VEHICLES RETURNS

Signal level:> 15 dB> 25 dB

ΔR [km], V [km/s]

t [s]

H [km]

γ [m2/kg]= 1/CB - ballistic coefficient К – airframes and motor cases; ГЧ – reentry vehicle; МЭО – metallized reference reflector; ЛЛЦ – light decoy;НЭО – inflatable reference reflector; ТЛЦ – heavy decoy

HUSIR W-band transmitterwith synthesized frequency band

dipl

exer

dipl

exer

dipl

exer

dipl

exer

dipl

exer

dipl

exer

Solid-state amplifier

gyroTWT

gyrotwystrons

ante

nna

HUSIR is specified for up-to-geostationary satellite

imaging with 3 cm range resolution.

Frequency band composed of

4 sub-bands

92-100 GHz

Each gyrotwystron

peak power

55 kW

Duty 10%

MMW radar classification

radar class applications transmitter type

low power

phased arrays

collision avoidance

solid state

medium power radar

seaport and airport

surveillance

vacuum

high power radar

space surveillance

vacuum

HPMMW radar problems

• high power amplifiers,

• multiplexers,

• duplexers,

• monopulse configurations,

• passive-active phased arrays,

• signal processing.

MEDIUM POWER RADAR

• mechanical hemispherical coverage,

• agile electrically controlled wave beam forming and scanning.

Agile high-range-resolution broad-angle scanning needs

sub-arrays with controlled time delays

N 2 3

Nphase front

Controlled phase shifters

Controlled time delays

A project of A project of mobile MMW radarmobile MMW radar

Track tractor Body Antenna module

HIGH-POWER RADAR

•Wave combining

•Frequency band synthesizing

•Transmit-receive switching

SPACE DEBRIS SURVEILLANCE

RADAR RCS 0.01 m2 detection range 1500 km

Angular precision 10”

Possible applications: • DLDS of electron-positron collider,• suppression of plasma instabilities

- phase-controlled RF sources - beam combiners - commutators

Multiplexerfor radar with

synthesized frequency band

N

N-1

N-2, N-1 , N

N-21

3 , … N

1, 2 , … N

SN-1

S1 SN-2

S2

2

Non-resonant 3D near-Littrow multiplexing: conceptual idea

Resonant diplexerResonant diplexer

DiplexerDiplexer

1 2

Output 1 Output 2

1Output 1

Output 2

Non-resonant frequency

Resonant frequency

|2 - 1 |<< 1,2

Synthesizing of frequency band

Common TR control and signal

processing unit Multiplexer

1 TR module

N TR module

2 TR module

jAmplifier

TR switch

Digitized signalAnalogous

receiverADC

j transmit-receive module

• Diplexer transmission

• Diplexer non-resonant loss

• Transmit mode: output spectrum

• Receive mode: signal in j-th channel

jj

j

j iR

)(

jj

jj i

iT

)(

N

jkkkjjj

iRiTTM1

expexp

N

jjj

HTMHrad1

0

jj

TMRM

Transmit mode of multi-channel communication system

Transmit mode of radar with synthesized frequency band

1 2 3 4 5

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

dB

-25

-20

-15

-10

-5

0

dB

1 2 3 4 5

RADAR WITH SYNTHESIZED FREQUENCY BAND

Target image obtained with

optimized MTI algorithm

-20 -10 0 10 20Tim e, ns

-10

0

10

20

dB

TRANSMIT-RECEIVE SWITCH

T

R

antenna duplexer

dummyload

transmitter

polarizer

antenna

receiver

receiverprotector

polarizationseparator

MONOPULSE “SUFFA”(the simplest version)

TR

AN

SM

IT

AN

TE

NN

A

DUPLEXERS

RE

CE

IVE

Synthesized-frequency-band “SUFFA”

GAEIK

antenna duplexer

1

2

n

Multi-plexer

Trans-mitter

Receiver Multi-plexer

1

2

n

Thank you