LOW COST MMW ROBOT RADAR SYSTEMS

THE PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH BATTLEFIELD ROBOT SENSOR TECHNOLOGY ARE DISCUSSED. UTILIZATION OF MILLIMETER WAVE RADAR AS A POSSIBLE SOLUTION IS PROPOSED. AN INNOVATIVE RADAR DESIGN BASED ON FREQUENCY MODULATED (FM) TECHNIQUES IN LIEU OF PULSED OPERATION IS THE BASIS OF THE PHASE I STUDY. THE USE OF A DEDICATED MICROPROCESSOR FOR RADAR SYSTEM CONTROL AND FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM (FFT) SIGNAL PROCESSING IMPLEMENTATION IS PROPOSED. ADAPTION OF PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED LOW COST RF COMPONENTS USED IN SEEKER APPLICATIONS IS PART OF THE TECHNICAL APPROACH. OTHER KEY POINTS OF THE RF DESIGN ARE ANTENNA CONSIDERATIONS, USE OF SOFT-SUBSTRATE AND FINLINE TECHNOLOGY, APPLICATION OF VARACTORS TO SUBSTITUTE BULKY YIG COMPONENTS, AND USE OF EFFICIENT INDIUM PHOSPHIDE GUNN DIODES FOR POWER GENERATION. ANALYSISBASED ON CUSTOMER GOALS WILL BE PERFORMED. A RADAR MODEL WILL BE PROGRAMMED TO ALLOW RAPID TRADE-OFF OF KEY SYSTEM DESIGN PARAMETERS. A PREVIOUSLY DEVELOPED RF CHAIN CALCULATION PROGRAM WILL BE USED TO ALLOW RF DESIGNS TO BE OPTIMIZED. ANTENNA TECHNIQUES WILL BE BASED ON A QUASI-MONOPULSE FEED SYSTEM FOR SIMULTANEOUS ELEVATION SCANNING. A BREADBOARD FOR OPERATION AT 35 GHZ IS CONSIDERED.