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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
The name Radar stands for Radio Detection and Ranging

Two distinguishing characteristics:

 Employs EM waves that fall into the microwave portion of the electromagnetic
spectrum (1 mm < l < 75 cm)
 Radiation is emitted by radar & the radiation scattered by objects is detected by radar.
Radar can’ t resolve detail or color as well as the human eye .
Radar is unimpaired by night, fog, clouds, smoke
Radar can also be used to measure the distances to objects. The elemental radar system
consists of a transmitter unit, an antenna for emitting electromagnetic radiation and
receiving the echo, an Energy detecting receiver and a processor.

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.

The direction of the target is determined by the angle of arrival (AOA) of the reflected signal.
Also if there is relative motion between the radar and the target, there is a shift in
frequency of the reflected signal due to Doppler Effect which can be used to distinguish
between moving targets and stationary ones.
History Background

James Clerk Maxwell (1831 –1879) - predicted the existence of radio waves in his theory
ofelectromagnetism. In 1886, Hertz experimentally tested the theories of Maxwell
anddemonstrated the similarity between radio and light waves. Hertz showed that radio waves
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couldbereflected itself. Heinrich Hertz, in 1886, experimentally tested the theories of

Maxwell anddemonstrated the similarity between radio and light waves. Hertz showed
that radio waves could bereflected by metallic and dielectric bodies. Due to these
reflections occurred through metallic bodiesgiven a start to the development of radar systems.

In 1903 a German engineer by the name of Hiilsmeyer experimented with the detectionof radio
waves reflected from ships. He obtained a patent in 1904 in several countries for anradio waves
reflected from ships as shown in fig.2

In the autumn of 1922 A. H. Taylor and L. C. Young of the Naval Research Laboratory detecteda
wooden ship using a CW wave-interference radar with separated receiver and transmitter.
Thewavelength was 5 m. The first application of the pulse technique to the measurement of
distancewas in the basic scientific investigation by Breit and Tuve in 1925 for measuring the
height ofthe ionosphere. However, more than a decade was to elapse before the detection of
aircraft bypulse radar was demonstrated.

The first detection of aircraft using the wave-interference effect was made in June, 1930,by L.
A. tlyland of the Naval Research Laboratory.' It was made accidentally while he
wasworking with a direction-finding apparatus located in an aircraft on the ground. The
transmitterat a frequency of 33 MHz was located 2 miles away, and the beam crossed an air
lane from L.Hyland of the Naval Research Laboratory. It was made accidentally while he was
working with adirection-finding apparatus located in an aircraft on the ground. The transmitter
at a frequency of33 MHz was located 2 miles away, and the beam crossed an air lane from a
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nearby airfield.Before the advent of radar, the only practicable means of detection of
aircraft wasacoustic, and a network of acoustic detectors was built in the 1920s and 1930s
around the southand east coast of the UK, some of which still remain. In calm air conditions,
detection ranges ofup to 25km were achievable.

RADAR RANGE MEASUREMENT

The simplest radar waveform is a train of narrow (0.1μs to 10μs) rectangular pulses
modulating a sinusoidal carrier the distance to the target is determined from the time TR taken
by the pulse to travel to the target and return and from the knowledge that
electromagnetic energy travels at the speed of light.

Electromagnetic energy travels through air at approximately the speed of light.

Therefore radio waves travel at the speed of light (v = c = 300,000 km/sec)

Range =
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Range =

R (in km) = 0.15TR (μs) ; R (in nmi) = 0.081TR (μs)

NOTE:

 1 nmi = 6076 feet =1852 meters.

 1 Radar mile = 2000 yards = 6000 feet
 Radar mile is commonly used unit of distance.

Once the pulse is transmitted by the radar a sufficient length of time must elapse before
the next pulse to allow echoes from targets at the maximum range to be detected.

Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF):- The rate at which the pulses are transmitted towards the
target from the radar is called as the pulse repletion frequency,fp

Pulse Repetition Period:- The time interval at which the pulses are periodically
transmittedtowards the target from the radar is called as the pulse repletion period,Tp is given
by in termsof prf.

If the PRF is too high i.e; if the time between pulses is too short, an echo signal from the
long range target might arrive after the transmission of the next pulse. This leads to
ambiguous range measurements. Such pulses are called second time around pulses. The range
beyond which second time around pulses occur is called the maximum unambiguous range.

Where

Tpis the pulse repletion time and fPis the Pulse repletion frequency in Hz.

Peak Power of the Radar:- The maximum power of the radar antenna, that can be transmitted
for the maximum unambiguous range target detection in particular direction.
Average Power of the Radar:-The average power of the radar antenna, that can be transmitted
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for the maximum unambiguous range target detection in all the direction (for isotropic
antenna).
Duty Cycle:- The duty cycle of the radar waveform is described as the ratio of the total time the
radar is radiating to the total time it could have radiated

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 distanceR from the radar is

represents the surface area of the sphere at distance R

If is the antenna gain, then power density from directive antenna

A part of transmitted wave on reaching the target gets reflected in the direction of the radar.
Suppose the radar cross section area is denoted as

Therefore power density of echosignal, Pr

If is the capture area or effective area or aperture area of the receiving antenna, the
received power

=
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Maximum radar range Rmax is the distance beyond which target cannot be detected. Here the
received echo signal power Pr equals minimum detectable signal Smin

= √

Relationship between transmitting gainand receiving effective area of an antenna is

=
Therefore

=√

=√
RADAR FREQUENCIES

BASIC RADAR TYPES

• Pulsed Radar- Radar transmits a series of pulses separated by non-transmission

intervals during which the radar “listens” for a return.
• Continuous Wave Radars- Constantly emitting radar. Relative motion of either the radar
or the target is required to indicate target position
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• Moving Target Indication( MTI) Radars

• Pulse Doppler Radars

APPLICATIONS

Normal radar functions:

1.Range (from pulse delay)
2. Velocity (from Doppler frequency shift)
3. Angular direction (from antenna pointing)
Signature analysis and inverse scattering:
4. Target size (from magnitude of return)
5. Target shape and components (return as a function of direction)
6. Moving parts (modulation of the return)
7. Material composition
The complexity (cost & size) of the radar increases with the extent of the functions that
theradar performs.
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CHAPTER 2: PULSE RADAR

Transmitter is a magnetron oscillator for generating microwave which is turned ON &
OFF by a pulse modulator. A single antenna can be generally used for both transmitting &
receiving. The receiver must be protected from damaged caused by high power of transmitter.
This is the function of duplexer. The duplexer also serves to channel the returned echo signals
to the receiver and not to the transmitter. Receiver is usually a superheterodyne receiver. The
first stage is a low noise RF amplifier.Next is a mixer stage.Another input to the mixer is from
local oscillator.

The mixer and local oscillator (LO) convert the RF signal to an intermediate frequency (IF).
A"typical" IF amplifier for an air-surveillance radar might have a center frequency of 30 or
60MHz and a bandwidth of the order of one megahertz.The IF amplifier should be designed as a
matchted filter; i.e., its frequency-response functionH(f) should maximize the peak-signal-to-
mean-noise-power ratio at the output.

After maximizing the signal-to-noise ratio in the IF amplifier, the pulse modulation is extracted
by the second detector and amplified by the video amplifier to a level where it can be properly
displayed, usually on a cathode-ray tube (CRT). Timing signals are also supplied to the indicator
to provide the range zero. Angle information is obtained from the pointing direction of the
antenna. The most common type of display is Plan position indicator or PPI (fig.5 a) which maps
the polar coordinates the location of the target in azimuth and range. Another form of display is
the A scope (fig. 5 b) which plots target amplitude (y axis) vs range (x axis) for some fixed
direction.
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CHAPTER 3: CONTINUOUS WAVE AND FREQUENCYMODULATED RADAR

DOPPLER EFFECT:

 When the target is stationary, the frequency of the received echoes is constant. However,
when the target is moving, the frequency of the received echoes is found to be different
from transmitted frequency.
 If the target approaches the radar, the frequency is increased and if the target moves away
from the radar, the frequency is decreased.
 That is, in the moving targets, there exists a frequency shift in the received echo signals.
 The presence of frequency shift in the received echo signals in the radar due to moving
targets is known as Doppler Effect. The frequency shift is known as Doppler frequency shift
 This Doppler Effect is the basis of CW radar.

If R is the distance from the radar to target, the total number of wavelengths (λ) contained in
the two-way path between the radar and the target is 2R/λ. Since one wavelength corresponds
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to an angular excursion of 2π radians, the total angular excursion ϕ made by the

electromagnetic wave during its transit to and from the target is 4πR/ λ

If target is in motion the range R and phase φ is continually changing. Thus the change in
phasewith respect to time is equal to frequency. Therefore Doppler angular frequency is
given by

wherefdis Doppler frequency andvris the radial velocity of the target with respect to radar.

If fdis in Hz, vr is in knots then the Doppler frequency can be given as

CW RADAR-BLOCK DIAGRAM

A block diagram of simple CW radar is shown in Fig.6 The transmitter generates

acontinuous (unmodulated) oscillation of frequency f0 , which is radiated by the antenna.
Aportion of the radiated energy is intercepted by the target and is scattered, some of it
in thedirection of the radar, where it is collected by the receiving antenna.

If the target is in motion with a velocity,vr relative to the radar, the received signal will
beshifted in frequency from the transmitted frequency f0 by the amount of ±fd
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 The plus sign associated with the doppler frequency applies if the distance between
target and radar is decreasing (closing target), that is, when the received signal
frequency isgreater than the transmitted signal frequency.
 The minus sign applies if the distance is increasing (receding target).

The received echo signal at a frequency f0±fdenters the radar via the antenna and
isheterodyned in the detector (mixer) with a portion of the transmitter signal to produce
adoppler beat note of frequency(fd) The sign of fd is lost in this process.

Doppler amplifier is used to eliminate echoes from stationary targets and to amplify the
Doppler echo signal to a level where it can operate an indicating device. The indicator might be
a pair of earphones or a frequency meter
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CW RADAR WITH NON ZERO IF:

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Limitations:

-Can use only for short or moderate ranges. This can be overcome by FM-CW radar
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FREQUENCY MODULATED-CW RADAR:

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Application:

CHAPTER 4: MTI AND PULSE DOPPLER RADAR

 The doppler shift produced by a moving target can be used in a pulse radar
(1) to determine the relativevelocity of the target or
(2) to separate desired moving targets from undesired stationary object
 the second application has been of greater importance
 Simple CW radar is shown fig 14. In principle the CW radar can be converted intoa pulse
radar by providing a power amplifier and a modulator to turn the amplifier on and off.
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Moving target identification:

 In an A scope it is impossible to distinguish moving targets from fixed targets from the single
sweep. So superposition of the sweeps is done.
 Echoes from fixed targets are constant while echoes from moving targets vary in amplitude
at a rate corresponding to the doppler shift.
 Therefore superposition of the sweeps shows the moving targets producing a butterfly
effect

 the butterfly effect is not suitable for display on PPI

 to extract doppler information in a form suitable for a PPI, one can use a delay line canceller
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MTI RADAR WITH POWER AMPLIFIER

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MTI RADAR WITH POWER OSCILLATOR

DELAY LINE CANCELLER

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 The simple MTI delay-line canceller shown in Fig. 19 is an example of a time-domain

filter.
 The capability of this device depends on the quality of the medium used as the delay line.
The delay line must introduce a time delay equal to the pulse repetition interval. For
typical ground-based air-surveillance radars this might be several milliseconds.
 Delay times of this magnitude cannot be achieved with practical electromagnetic
transmission lines. By converting the electromagnetic signal to an acoustic signal it is
possible to utilize delay lines of a delay line must introduce a time delay equal.

 One of the advantages of a time-domain delay-line canceler as compared to the more

conventional frequency-domain filter is that a single network operates at all ranges and
does not require a separate filter for each range resolution cell. Frequency-domain
doppler filter banks are of interest in some forms of MTI and pulse-doppler radar.

Frequency Response of Delay Line canceller

The delay-line canceler acts as a filter which rejects the d-c component of clutter. Because of its
periodic nature, the filter also rejects energy in the vicinity of the pulse repetition frequency and
its harmonics.

The video signal received from a target at range R0 is

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 The performance of delay line cancellers can further be improved by double cancellation
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PULSE DOPPLER RADAR

A Pulse radar that extracts the doppler frequency shift for the purpose of detecting moving
targets in the presence of clutter is of two types an MTI radar or a pulse doppler radar. In such a
system ambiguities can arise in both the doppler frequency and the range measurements.
However, both these ambiguities cannot be avoided simultaneously.
Range ambiguities are avoided with a low sampling rate (low pulse repetition frequency) used
in MTI radar

Doppler frequency ambiguities are avoided with a high sampling rate  used in Pulse Doppler
radar

The pulse doppler radar is more likely to use range-gated doppler filter-banks than delay line
cancelers. Also, a power amplifier such as a klystron is more likely to be used than power
oscillators like magnetron.

A pulse doppler radar operates at a higher duty cycle than does an MTI. Problems of blind
speeds are not present in pulse doppler radar since its prf is high. Although it is difficult to
generalize, the MTI radar seems to be the more widely used of the two, but pulse doppler is
usually more capable of reducing clutter.
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CHAPTER -5 RADAR TRANSMITTERS [for detail notes & figure refer microwave textbook]

 When more stability is needed MOPA is used

 Self-excited oscillators are used where small size & portability is important

The various transmitter tubes are:

(1) Magnetron oscillator

(2) Klystron
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(3) Travelling Wave tube

CHAPTER -6 RADAR RECEIVERS

Types of radar receiver: TRF & Super heterodyne receiver.

A measure of noise produced by practical receiver compared with noise of ideal receiver is called noise
figure or noise factor

Noise figure/Noise factor

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LOW- NOISE FRONT -ENDS

Early microwave super heterodyne receivers did not use RF amplifiers as front end since at that time it
had a greater noise figure than when mixer along was employed as receiver input stage.

Several receiver front ends used in radar applications are:

1. Parametric amplifier:
o lowest noise figure especially at higher microwave frequencies
o more complex & expensive
2. transistor amplifier:
o can be applied over most of the entire range of frequencies of interest to radar
o two types:
 Silicon bipolar transistor- used at lower radar frequencies (below L band)
 GaAs FET- preferred at higher frequencies. Thermal noise contribution is
greater than shot noise. Cooling the device will improve the noise figure.
 Used in multistage configuration with typical gain per stage decreasing from
12dB at VHF to 6dB at Ku band
3. Tunnel diode amplifier:
o Noise figures from 4 to 7dB over the range 2 to 25 GHz.
4. Travelling wave tube amplifier-overtaken by other devices

Other factors besides noise figure which can influence the selection of receiver front end are: cost,
burnout, dynamic range. The lower the noise figure, less be the transmitter power&/or antenna
aperture.

Limitations:

Reduction in dynamic range of receiver compared to receiver with a mixer as front end.

Dynamic range is the ratio of maximum signal that can be handled to smallest signal capable of being
detected.

If RF amplifier is inserted ahead of mixer stage along with minimum signal, maximum signal that can be
handled by receiver will also be reduced due to low noise figure of RF amplifier thereby reducing
dynamic range
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Utility of low-noise front-ends.

There are limitations to the use of a low-noise front-end in some radar applications like the cost,
burnout, and dynamic range of low-noise devices might not be acceptable in some applications. Even if
the low-noise device itself is of large dynamic range, there can be a reduction of the dynamic range of
the receiver as compared to a receiver with a mixer as its front-end. Dynamic range is usually defined as
the ratio of the maximum signal that can be handled to the smallest signal capable of being detected.
The smallest signal is the minimum detectable signal as determined by receiver noise, and the maximum
signal is that which causes a specified degree of intermodulation or a specified deviation from linearity
(usually 1 dB) of the output-vs.-input curve.

When an RF amplifier is inserted ahead of the mixer stage, and if no change is made in the remainder of
the receiver, the minimum signal will be reduced because of the lower noise figure of the RF amplifier,
but the maximum signal that can be handled by the receiver will also be reduced by an amount equal to
the gain of the amplifier. Since the gain of the RF amplifier is usually high compared to the reduction in
receiver noise-figure, the net result is a reduction in receiver dynamic range. However, this can be
corrected and the original dynamic range recovered by reducing the gain of the IF amplifier to maintain
a constant output).

On the other hand, if the mixer rather than the IF amplifier is what limits the total dynamic range of the
receiver, the introduction of the low-noise front-end will cause a sacrifice in the mixer dynamic range
and, consequently, the dynamic range of the entire receiver.

A low-noise receiver may also not be warranted if the RF losses preceding the receiver are high.

In some nonradar applications, as for example radio astronomy, most of these lossy components are not
necessary as they are 'in radar, so that a low noise figure front-end can be used effectively. In a military
radar, a low-noise receiver car1 make the radar more susceptible to the effects of deliberate electrorlic
countermeasures (ECM).

A variety of low-noise radar receivers are available to the radar system designer. The well-recognized
benefits of low-noise receivers, combined with their relative affordability, make them an attractive
feature in modern radar design
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MIXERS
-The function of mixer is to convert RF energy to IF with minimum loss & without spurious responses.

- Conversion loss & noise temperature ratio:

The noise temperature ratio of a crystal mixer varies approximately inversely with frequency
from about 100 kHz down to a fraction of a hertz. This is called flicker noise or 1/f noise.
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Balanced Mixers:

 Narrow band pass RF filter: Noise that accompanies the local oscillator signal can
appear at the IF frequency because of nonlinear action of mixer. This LO noise will
affect receiver sensitivity. One method for eliminating LO noise is to insert a narrow
band pass RF filter between local oscillator and mixer. The center frequency of this filter
is that of local oscillator & its bandwidth must be narrow so that LO noise does not
appear at the mixer.
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Advantages: relatively broad band, less local oscillator power is needed

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RADAR DISPLAYS

Raw video: When display is connected directly to the video output of receiver

Synthetic video: When the receiver video output is first processed by an automatic detector and
tracking processor.
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