A Compact UWB Radar Front End Using a Single Antenna With a Directional Coupler

Ultra-Wideband radar systems have already demonstrated an ability to detect and locate non-cooperative targets. Existing systems, however, are clumsy to use because they require two separate antennas for the transmit and receive channels. Because the antennas are large, it is challenging to mount both of them onto a HMMWV. What is needed is a UWB radar that will allow the use of a single antenna for both transmit and receive. To make the UWB radar system more compact, we propose building an entire UWB radar system using a single Impulse Radiating Antenna along with a customized high-voltage UWB directional coupler. We will also use a commercially available high-voltage solid state source. We will acquire the data with a fast single-shot oscilloscope. Finally, we will use a laptop computer running LabVIEW software to drive the entire system, and to deconvolve the system response from the raw data in real time. This technology has been enabled by our Phase I results, in which we demonstrated the feasibility of UWB high-voltage directional couplers.