Design of a Low-Cost Ultra-Wide-Band Radar Platform.

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Radar Systems Engineering
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Traditional pulse-based radar systems often face limitations in pulse generation and signal processing complexity.
• Existing designs may require complex power supplies and high sampling rates, increasing cost and difficulty.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose an improved design for a pulse-based radar system.
• To enhance pulse generation and simplify receiver signal mixing.
• To achieve high bandwidth and effective sampling rates using cost-effective components.

Main Methods:

• Utilized two-step recovery diodes for generating 120 ps duration pulses.
• Implemented a simplified pulse generator by removing the negative power supply.
• Employed a sampling mixer for signal stretching from picoseconds to microseconds.
• Integrated the improved pulse generator as a strobe pulse generator for the sampling mixer.
• Used a software-defined radio (Red Pitaya) for radar control and data acquisition.

Main Results:

• Achieved a radar bandwidth of up to 8 GHz.
• Reached an equivalent receiving sample rate of approximately 100 GSa/s.
• Demonstrated a simpler sampling mixer design.
• Enabled low sample rate analog-to-digital conversion due to signal stretching.

Conclusions:

• The improved pulse-based radar design offers significant advancements in performance.
• The use of readily available commercial components ensures a low-cost and accessible radar implementation.
• This design facilitates wider adoption of advanced radar technology.