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Course:  

Introduction to Airborne and Pulse-Doppler Radars and Phased-Arrays

Lecturer:

Dr. Eli Brookner, Raytheon Company

Date:

Mondays, 6:00 -9:00 PM,  March  12, 19, 26, April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, May 7, 14, 2007 (makeup dates if needed: May 21 & 27)

Location:

MITRE Corporation, Burlington Road, Bedford – Room IS100

**PLEASE NOTE** WEEK ONE MARCH 12TH WILL BE HELD IN M BUILDING

BOOKS:

FOUR BOOKS given out FREE to registrants (total list price $546)


Introduction to Airborne and Pulse-Doppler Radars
and
Phased-Arrays
 


FOUR BOOKS given out FREE to registrants
(total list price $546)
 

  1. Introduction to Airborne Radar, G. W. Stimson, Scitech, 1998, 2nd Ed., Hardcover, 475 pp. List Price $139. This book is extremely well written. It presents complicated topics in a simple easy to understand manner using fantastic color illustrations. An excellent introduction to the many aspects of radar  —  pulse Doppler processing, Frequency and PRF selection, clutter and its rejection, antennas, jamming and its countermeasures. Advanced topics like Displaced Phase Center Array (DPCA), Notching Technique, Cross Eye explained in very simple terms. The book gives many excellent detailed examples of airborne systems  —  like AWACS, E-2C, JSTARS, F-22, F-16 C/D, F-18 C/D, B-2, B-1 B,AH-64D Apache Helicopter radar, commercial radars, tethered aerostat (like JLENS).

  1. Practical Phased Array Antenna Systems, Dr. Eli Brookner, Editor, LexBook, 282 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA 02421 (formerly published by Artech House, 1991) Hardcover, 258 pages, List Price $167. Covers array fundamentals:  phase and time-delay steering; grating lobes for 1- and 2-dimensional arrays; effects of errors and failures on gain, sidelobes and angle accuacy; array weighting, thinning, blindness, elements, phase-shifters and feeds; limited field of view (LFOV) arrays; example design.

  1. Array and Phased Array Antenna Basic, Hubregt J. Visser, Wiley, 2005, 359 pp. List Price $120. This new book is packed with first-hand practical experience and worked-out examples, this is a valuable learning tool and reference source for those wishing to improve their understanding of basic phased array antenna systems without relying heavily on a thorough knowledge of electromagnetics or antenna theory. It complements very well the above #2 book of the course. Features a general introduction to antennas and explains the array antenna principle through discussion of the physical characteristics rather than the theory.

  1. Radar Systems and Analysis and Design Using MATLAB, B. R. Mahafza, Chapman and Hall/CRC, 2005, 2nd Ed., 638 pp. List Price $120.  This 2nd Ed. Is a big improvement over the first edition. For example the probability programs given determining Pd for all the different Swerling models are very accurate rather approximate. A CD is provided with MATLAB programs for the determination of coverage diagrams in the presence of multipath, the ambiguity function for various waveforms, the radar equation, performance in jamming, atmospheric refraction calculations, the Fresnel coefficient, atmospheric attenuation versus range and elevation, clutter-to-noise , MTI response with PRF stagger, antenna patterns for Linear and planar arrays (rectangular and circular), g-h, g-h-k, and Kalman filtering, radar cross section.


This TUTORIAL course is based on the FOUR books listed above. The course, the books, and the course notes will provide an ideal introduction to: airborne radars; pulse Doppler radars, range and Doppler ambiguity removal; clutter and jammer rejection using DPCA, Anomalous Nulling, adaptive arrays and Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP); radar antenna stealthing, Low Probability of Intercept (LPI) radars; jamming (ECM) and counter jamming techniques (ECCM), Electronic Warfare Intelligence Functions (ELINT, ESM, RWR); the principles of phased array antennas – phase and time delay steering, linear and planar arrays, avoiding grating lobes, effects of amplitude and phase errors and element failure on array performance, radiating elements, phase shifters (including MEMS), limited scan systems, feed systems, digital beam forming (DBF), sequential detection, optimal scanning.

This TUTORIAL course offers a concise, introductory-level survey of the fundamentals without dwelling on extensive mathematical derivations or abstruse theory.  The material on airborne radars is very useful and informative to the engineer designing ground and space-based radars. It is very useful to see the ingenious way the airborne radar engineers handle the clutter-rejection and range-doppler ambiguity problems. The 2nd book is derived from a set of twelve detailed lecture notes that originally accompanied a series of intensive short courses presented in the mid-seventies on phased-array fundamentals. The course lectures, notes and reprints update technology and techniques to 2006 and give future trends.

This course is intended for the engineer or scientist not familiar with airborne-radars and phased-arrays  as well as the specialist who wants to learn about other aspects of these systems.  It is not necessary to have taken the Radar Part 1 course before taking this course.

Day 1

March 12: Lecture #1 – Airborne Radar Basics:  Pulse and Pulse Doppler Radar Fundamentals; Example Airborne Radar Applications; Selection of Carrier Frequency; Range-Doppler Ambiguity Problem.

Days 2 and 3

March 19, 26: Lecture #2 – Review of  Basics: Radar Equation and Pulse Compression; Sources of Clutter and its Spectrum; Techniques for Eliminating Clutter  — Airborne Moving Target Indicator (AMTI), TACCAR, DPCA (Array and Monopulse), Notching Technique, Anomalous Nulling; Combining These Techniques, 3-Phase Center Clutter Cancellation to Estimate Target Angle; Performance of AMTI and DPCA processors.

Day 4

April 2: Lecture #3 – Choice of  PRF: Low, Medium and High;  Pros and Cons of Each; Methods for Eliminating range and Doppler Ambiguities (Chinese Remainder Theorem); Range and Doppler Eclipsing; Signal Processing Architectures for Each; Sidelobe Blanker to Eliminate Large Discrete Clutter Scatterers coming in through the sidelobes; Use of FM Ranging to Determine Range with very high PRF. Example Airborne Systems: F-15, APS-134, ASTOR, AWACS, E-2C, JSTARS, F-22, F-16 C/D, F-18 C/D,B-2, B-1 B,AH-64D Apache Helicopter radar, commercial radars.

Day 5

April 9: Lecture #4 – Airborne Radar Electronic Countermeasures (ECM):  Chaff, noise jammers (barrage, spot, multiple spot, blinking); repeater (digital RF memory [DRFM], transponder); bin masking (range, velocity); retro-directive antenna, terrain bounce, crosseye, cross polarization, decoys; range and velocity gate stealing.

Lecture #5 – Airborne Radar Electronic Counter Countermeasures (ECCM): Frequency agility, angle tracking of jammer, passive ranging, ultra low antenna sidelobes (ULSL), sidelobe blanking, constant false alarm rate (CFAR) processor, anti-gate stealer circuit, sidelobe and mainlobe cancellers, LPI radar, leading edge tracking, conical scan on receive only (COSRO), antenna stealthing.

AWACS IMAGE

 

CROSSEYE JAMMER PICTURE

Day 6

April 16: Lecture #6 – Phased Array Fundamentals, Part 1: Example Systems: COBRA DANE and PAVE PAWS; Phase and time-delay steering; Array Thinning; Embedded Element; Predicting Full Array Performance from Element Gain; Active Arrays Introduced.

Day 7

April 23; Lecture #7 – Part 2: More Example systems: THAAD, SPY-3, VSR, IRIDIUM. Array factor; grating lobes for 1- and 2-dimensional arrays; u-v space; directivity; ideality factor: antenna mismatch; Antenna Weighting; Array Frequency Scanning; Monopulse difference patterns.

 

Day 8

April 30; Lecture #8 – Part 3:Status of Phased Arrays: Digital Beaming Forming, MMIC; Array Elements: waveguide, dipole, patch, notch; triangular versus rectangular lattice; Array Feeds: Rotman Lens, Space-Fed Arrays (PARIOT, Reflectarrays), Butler.

Day 9

May 7; Lecture #9 – Part 4: Array System Issues: System considerations for Phased Arrays: Beam shape loss; Beam packing loss, Optimum Beam Spacing, Triangular versus rectangular beam packing;  Sequential Detection; Array system temperature calculation; Polarization loss and isolation; Breakthrough in Phased Arrays.

Day 10

May 14; Lecture #10 – Part 5 Limited Scan phased arrays; Phase shifters.

 

One Row (Stick) of Active Array

 

Main-beam notching of clutter or jammer

 

Ground clutter

 

Range-doppler ambiguity removal

 

Raytheon F-15 APG-63(V)2 AESA

 

MP-RTIP on Global Hawk

 

 

Your Registration Includes:

   4 Textbooks ..................................................$546

   Reprints ........................................................ $65

   Over 800 Vugraphs ......................................... $50

 

Decision (Run/Cancel) Date for this Course is

Course Fee Schedule:

REGISTRATION RECEIVED BY
March 1, 2007

REGISTRATION RECEIVED AFTER
March 1, 2007

IEEE MEMBERS $535

IEEE MEMBERS $575

NON-MEMBERS $575

NON-MEMBERS $625

On-line Registration and Payment

On-line registration is closed for this course, but registration is still available on-site or by contacting the office at 781-245-5405.

Copyright © 2008 IEEE Boston Section. All rights reserved.
Maintained by R M Stelting

Updated Thursday August 16, 2007