Software Defined Radar Systems

 

software defined radar equipment

The software defined radar (SDR) system shown in Figure 1 was developed under the support of an Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Discovery Challenge Thrust Program.  The 4´4 MIMO radar system is based on a 1 GSPS transceiver and a 2-18 GHz up/down conversion module, so that 500 MHz instantaneous bandwidth measurements can be performed at any frequency from 2-18 GHz. The system includes multiple field-programmable gate array (FPGA)/digital signal processing (DSP) components to allow real-time processing of received data, and is controlled by a backend host computer. The host computer interface (written in the C# development environment) includes a graphical user interface shown in Figure 2 that allows user control of radar waveform properties, selection of center frequency, polarization, and other parameters. The host computer also can be configured to adapt radar parameters on a coherent processing interval (CPI) basis via an interface to the FPGA/DSP system components.

This system has been utilized in 2´2 studies of MIMO target detection including multi-static observations of a UAV target in the ElectroScience Lab’s compact range facility and associated detection studies.  The system is fully coherent, and can be configured to perform widely spaced, closely spaced, or hybrid MIMO bistatic measurements.  The system has also been used in micro-Doppler measurements of human activities in AFRL’s optical motion capture facility.

 

 

ESL software defined radar equipment chart

 

 

screenshot of SDR user interface