High Dynamic Range (HDR) Improvements for Synthetic Aperature Radar (SAR)/Ground Moving Target Indicator (GMTI) and Passive/Bistatic Radar

Helios Remote Sensing Systems, Inc. proposes to investigate and validate the use of cutting edge Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) to improve signal to clutter ratio (SCR) and improve dynamic range of modern A/D converters (ADC). We will demonstrate high dynamic range (HDR) approaches which will be compatible with existing radar signal and data processing architectures. We will develop a baseline design and an approach to demonstrate image quality, detection range, and tracking improvements against maneuvering, lower RCS targets. These various criteria will be optimized for HDR SAR imagery and GMTI simultaneously as much as possible. We will evaluate various techniques for any changes in SAR range or cross-range resolution, STAP/GMTI performance, and SAR image quality. We will then document the increased dynamic range improvements and other signal processing improvements and recommend signal acquisition, sampling upgrades, and architecture upgrades which will make dynamic range upgrades in the foreseeable future.