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Radar Receivers
and Digitization
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SNR in
SNR out
( F2 1) ( F3 1) ( F4 1) .....
+
+
+
G1
G1G2
G1G2G3
If G1 is high, this makes all contributions other than F1 negligible, which is the goal in a well-designed system. The system noise figure is largely determined by the first stage in the
receiver chain.
In most modern systems, a semiconductor LNA based on gallium arsenide (GaAs) or gallium nitride (GaN) is employed.
14.3 Filtering
Filtering is vital and appears in many aspects of receiver design,
the most fundamental of which is to make sure that wanted
signals are received with minimal loss while simultaneously
minimizing the amount of noise that appears at the receiver
output. Filtering also plays a vital role in the design of downconverters and digitizers.
The Matched Filter. Radar receiver designers, unlike designers
of an electronic warfare receiver, have the great advantage that
they know exactly what signal has been transmitted. Therefore,
detecting the echo is immeasurably easier than if the signal is
unknown. The key concept here is the matched filter, which
is designed to match the transmitted signal and maximizes the
signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver output.
Matched filter theory is a major branch of radar engineering
that originated with D. O. Norths 1943 paper. The essence of a
matched filter receiver is that it aims to correlate a known signal (i.e., the transmitted signal), with an unknown signal (the
received signal) to detect the presence of the known signal in
the unknown signal. The ideal matched filter is a time-reversed
replica of the transmitted signal.
This works regardless of the characteristics of the transmitted
signal: it can be a simple pulse; a frequency-modulated chirp; a
binary code sequence; or anything else, provided it is known.
The principle is most easily understood just by considering a
simple rectangular pulse of width . The matched filter for a
simple pulse is one whose frequency response is the Fourier
transform of the pulse. In simple terms, this equates to a filter
with a bandwidth of approximately 1/.
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A typical radar pulse might be 1 s wide, so the matched filter needs to have a bandwidth of 1/106 Hz, or 1 MHz. This
is sufficient to pass the pulse with little degradation but is
narrow enough to minimize noise at the output. A narrower
bandwidth will reduce the noise but also the signal, whereas a
wider bandwidth will admit too much noise.
An ideal radar receiver would implement this filter right at
the front end. This would ensure that only desired signals
entered the radar receiver and would maximize sensitivity.
Unfortunately, it isnt that easy in practice: a 1 MHz filter
implemented at the carrier frequency of a typical airborne
radar (10 GHz) is extremely difficult to implement because of
the very high precision (in relative frequency terms) required.
The existing techniques that accomplish this all have very
major drawbacks and are rarely used. So in practice this
narrowband filtering is usually applied later in the receiver,
after the incoming signal has been downconverted to a lower
frequency.
14.4 Downconversion
Almost all radar receivers employ frequency downconversion. Although theoretically unnecessary, this is a solution that
allows filters and amplifiers to be realized in practice.
Mixer
RF Input
IF Output
LO
Figure 14-1. A simple mixer stage: the RF input and the Local
Oscillator (LO) are mixed together to provide an output at an
Intermediate Frequency (IF).
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Mixers
mathematically,
they can be regarded as a device that multiplies two
signals together, which gives the sum and difference frequencies. In practice, such an ideal device does not exist, but good
approximations can be built.
RF, so for half the LO period (3/2 the RF period) we select one
arm of the balanced RF signal, and for the next half of the LO
period we select the other arm of the balanced RF signal. The
resultant waveform repeats every 3/2 the period of the RF
signal; that is, it is at 2/3 the frequency, which is the desired
mixer output.
Local
Oscillator
The LO signal is fed to the top and bottom points of the diode
ring. In practice, a very high amplitude drive signal (compared
with the RF signal) is used, so the LO signal approximates to
a square wave (due to saturation effects in the drive amplifiers). The result is that half the time one side of the diode ring
is biased on and the other side is biased off. This situation
continually reverses at the LO frequency.
The RF signal is fed to the left and right points of the diode
ring in balance; the signal at the left point is 180 degrees out of
phase with the signal at the right point. Under the control of the
LO, one arm of the balanced RF signal is alternately shorted out
by the diodes that are biased on. This gives rise to a complex
waveform in the RF circuit, the mixer output, which includes
a strong component at the desired difference frequency. This
is then filtered out (using other components not shown here)
and fed to the next stage of the receiver.
A simple example is shown where the LO is at one-third of the
RF signal. The period of the LO is three times the period of the
Resultant signal with LO at 1/3 the RF frequency- the signal is now at 2/3
the RF frequency
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IF
LO
(RF-LO)
Upper
Sideband
RF
(RF+LO)
Frequency
Figure 14-2. These frequencies are present at the input (RF and LO) and the output of the mixer stage.
IF
(Img-LO)
IF
(RF-LO)
Image
Freq
LO
RF
Frequency
Figure 14-3. Image frequency signals at the image frequency can mix down and be indistinguishable from the desired IF output.
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RF Filter
Mixer
RF
Sideband
Filter
IF
LO
Figure 14-4. The mixer stage is shown here with RF and IF filtering.
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All amplifiers are nonlinear; that is, the output is not simply a
multiple of the input at all times. Therefore, if signal is applied
to an amplifier, it will not simply be made bigger; it will also
be distorted. The bigger the input signal, the greater the distortion; only small signals can be amplified with very little distortion. This is bad news, because a distorted signal can easily
give rise to false detections. The trick here is to make sure
the amplifier is linear enough to deal with the biggest signal
it is likely to encounter, and to do this means increasing the
bias currents to the transistors in the amplifier, which in turn
increases power consumption. This is the price that must be
paid if a high dynamic range is necessary.
Max Gain at
Long Range
Gain
Low Gain at
Short Range
Range
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40
50
60
dBc / Hz
70
80
90
100
110
120
10
100
1000
Hz
10000
100000
1000000
Figure 14-6. This typical phase noise plot shows phase noise
spectral density as a function of frequency offset from the carrier.
14.7 Digitization
Early radar receivers provided an analog output, called the video
output, direct to the display, which had been downconverted
to the frequency needed to drive the display. This approach
is now obsolete, and all radars employ some form of analogto-digital (A/D) conversion at the receiver output. Digitized
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ADC
LO
90
I = A cos()
Clock
Q = A sin()
ADC
ADC
0,1,0,1
1,0,1,0
Clock
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Sideband
Filter
RF Filter
Detector
DISPLAY
RF
1st IF
LO1
2nd IF
LO2
It shows the main mixing and filtering steps, but for simplicity
the necessary intermediate amplifiers are omitted. The output
of the radar antenna is fed to the receiver via an RF filter that
limits the band of the input signal to prevent unwanted mixing products and may be preceded by an LNA. Following the
initial downconversion to a UHF IF, the unwanted mixing sidebands are filtered out, and a second-stage downconversion to
video (typically less than 100 MHz) is carried out. At this point
a fixed analog pulse matched filter is used before the detector
stage. The pulse matched filter doubles as a filter to remove
unwanted sidebands.
This type of radar commonly only has one pulse width, so
only one pulse matched filter is required. If the radar has more
than one pulse width, different filters are needed with a mechanism for switching between them.
This type of receiver commonly has a fairly poor noise figure,
perhaps 10 dB or more. An LNA at the front end will improve
matters significantly, and in a well-designed receiver a noise
figure of 3 dB is achievable. However, this will require a lot
of attention to detail it throughout the signal path, ensuring
that losses in filters and mixers are compensated by suitable
distributed amplifiers.
Earlier noncoherent receivers would simply feed the detected
video to an analog display. This has now been superseded by
the insertion of an A/D converter at the receiver output. The
digitized video signal can then be conveniently displayed on
any suitable digital device as well as put in a form that permits
further signal processing.
RF Filter
LNA
Pulse
Filter
LO3
90
RF
1st IF
LO1
I
ADC
Clock
2nd IF
ADC
LO2
Figure 14-12. This block diagram shows the elements of a coherent pulse receiver with baseband digitization.
I
Sideband
Filter
RF Filter
LNA
Anti-Alias
Filter
ADC
RF
1,0, 1,0
1st IF
LO1
0,1,0, 1
Clock
Figure 14-13. This block diagram shows the coherent pulse receiver with IF digitization.
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Designs for this type of receiver differ little from the coherent
pulse designs already discussed. The main difference is that
the filtering is now defined by the FM bandwidth rather than
the pulse bandwidth. In other respects they are very similar.
Stretch Receivers. Stretch, or deramp-on-receive, receivers are a
specialized type commonly used in very high range resolution
radars such as synthetic aperture mapping radars. The architecture of the stretch receiver is made so that a relatively narrow
band receiver can provide a much wider actual bandwidth.
How is this trick achieved? The idea is to exchange time and
frequency. A stretch radar transmits a linear FM pulse, where
the carrier frequency is linearly ramped up over a range that
defines the total bandwidth of a transmission. So, for example,
an X-band radar might ramp the carrier frequency from 8 to
10 GHz over a 100 s period, providing a total bandwidth of
2 GHz. So far so good, but if our receiver has a bandwidth of
only 100 MHz, how do we cope?
The solution is that, at the expected time of arrival of the
returned signal, the first LO is then ramped at precisely the
same rate as the transmitted signal. The echo and the LO ramp
in parallel, and the difference frequency remains constant (for
echoes from the same range). Varying the range will thus cause
a different frequency to emerge from the first mixer. If this
is done correctly, the bandwidth of the signal emerging from
the mixer will be kept within the overall bandwidth of the
receiver so that very fine range resolution can be achieved by
frequency analyzing the signal output. The limitation is that
this works over a limited range swath.
This trick of exchanging time for frequency is simple enough
to implement in the receiver. It is necessary (in a coherent
receiver) only to ensure that the front end has enough bandwidth to pass the full signal and to be able to ramp the first
LO appropriately. Most of the complexity falls on the signal
generation and timing; the receiver is almost unchanged.
14.14 Summary
Radar receiver designs are a complex trade-off. They must
achieve very high dynamic range, low noise figure, and high
spectral purity within a compact space and with performance
in many cases limited by fundamental physical limits. Simple,
elegant designs that digitize at the radar carrier frequency are
impractical for all but the simplest radars and are likely to
remain so.
Practical receiver designs all employ some form of frequency
downconversion, and the filtering design is usually the crucial factor in determining receiver performance. Filtering
must be carried out at RF, IF, for anti-aliasing and for matched
filtering.
A/D conversion technology is a critical enabler, and modern designs allow more and more filtering to be performed
digitally, which is much more stable and repeatable. The penalty is that this places very stringent requirements on the A/D
converter.
Further Reading
H. T. Friis, Noise Figures of Radio Receivers, Proceedings of
the IRE, pp. 419422, July 1944.
D. O. North, An Analysis of the Factors which Determine
Signal/Noise Discrimination in Pulsed Carrier Systems,
Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 51, No. 7, pp. 10161027, July
1963.
P. P. Vaidyanathan, Generalizations of the Sampling Theorem:
Seven Decades after Nyquist, IEEE Transactions Circuits
Systems I, Vol. 48, No. 9, September 2001.
H. Nyquist, Certain Topics in Telegraph Transmission Theory,
Transactions of the AIEE, Vol. 47, pp. 617644, January
1928 (reprinted in Proceedings of the IEEE, Vol. 90, No. 2,
pp. 280305, February 2002).
J. B. Tsui, Digital Techniques for Wideband Receivers, SciTechIET, 2004.
M. I. Skolnik (ed.), Radar Receivers, chapter 6 in Radar
Handbook, 3rd ed., McGraw Hill, 2008.
J. B. Tsui, Special Design Topics in Digital Wideband Receivers,
Artech House, 2009.
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