FOUR GREAT BOOKS given out FREE to registrants (total list price $412)

1) Practical Phased Array Antenna Systems, Dr. Eli Brookner, Editor, LexBook, 282 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA 02412 (formerly published by Artech House, 1991) Hardcover, 258 pages, List Price $91.00.

2) Space-Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) for Radar, J.R. Guerci, Artech House, 189 pages, List price $94, 2003. If you ever wanted To learn about adaptive array processing and STAP, this is the book to read. Exremely well written; complex made simple!

3)Tracking and Kalman Filtering Made Easy, Eli Brookner, Wiley-Interscience, 1998, 4th printing *, 477 pp., $110.  Fantastic book, gives an extremely simple, geometric and physical introduction to the voltage methods for sidelobe canceling, least-squares filtering, G-H filtering and the Kalman Filter.  How they are all related is shown.  Systolic array implementations given.* 4th printing has new sections, like a new edition.  These include (1) when Kalman Filter is optimal, (2) other forms of Kalman Filter and (3) a small section on Non-linear filters.

4) Microwave Engineering, 3rd Edition. Dr. D. pozar, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hardcover, 700 pages. List Price $117, 2005. Super book, covering the basicswhich is updated to include MEMS, nonlinear effects, active circuit design, noise. Has website for problems and examples.

Course Description

This course is based on the books entitled Practical Phased Array Antenna Systems and Tracking and Kalman Filter Made Easy both by Dr. Eli Brookner.  The course, the books, and the course notes will provide an ideal introduction to the principles of phased array antenna design and adaptive arrays.  The first book is 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 notes update the text to 2004 technology & techniques; DARPA $10 T/R module $20/element, 35GHz Active Seeker array, MEMS; SMARTELLO; MEADS; AMS RAT 31DL; APAR; SAMPSON; Lin. Lab. S-band DBF array; Low cost VICTS Array; SPY-3; Synthesis of non-sym. pattern with circular array; 100 million element radio telescope.

With the explicitly tutorial approach, Practical Phased-Array Antenna Systems offers a concise, introductory-level survey of the fundamentals without dwelling on extensive mathematical derivations or abstruse theory.  Its presentation focuses on step-by-step design procedures and provides practical results using extensive curves, tables and illustrative examples.

The book, Tracking and Kalman Filtering Made Easy, together with the course notes and lectures, provides excellent tutorials on tracking and adaptive arrays.  The g-h, a-ί, g-h-k, and a-ί-g tracking filters will be explained from a simple physical point of view.  The Kalman filter will be introduced.  Covered in easy terms will be sidelobe cancellation, full adaptive array processing without suffering its computation complexity (through the use of adaptive-adaptive array processing, beam-space processing, largest eigenbeam processing).  Also covered will be the voltage (square-root) processing techniques which are less sensitive to computer roundoff errors.  These involve the use of the Gram-Schmidt, Givens and Householder orthonormal transformations, which will be explained in simple terms.  Implementations of these transformations using systolic arrays will be presented.  Finally, Space-Time Adaptive Array (STAP) for airborne platforms will be explained and related to the displaced phase center antenna (DPCA).

Will cover new correct way to calculate phased array system noise temperature;  Effects of T/R module mismatch on antenna patterns.

This course is intended for the engineer or scientist not familiar with phased-array antennas as well as the antenna specialist who wants to learn about other aspects of phased-array antenna systems.  The major emphasis will be on the system aspects of phased-array systems.

Schedule

Day 1 February 21

Lecture #1a – Current Status, Future Trends and Overview

Phased arrays have come a long way in the last three decades.  These accomplishments, together with future trends, will be covered:  Passive phased arrays (like the PATRIOT, COBRA DANE, AEGIS); Discrete solid-state active phased arrays (like the Swedish Erieye, Israeli Phalcon airborne early-warning system and Tactical Ballistic Missile Defense system, PAVE PAWS); Integrated circuit solid state MMIC active phased arrays (like the Swedish ASEA, Japanese FSX, European COBRA, USA ASAP, Dutch APAR, European AMSAR, British MESAR and Sampson, and USA DD(X) SPY-3, THAAD, F-18, JSF, F-22, L-Band cellular-satellite IRIDIUM F-22 systems. The state-of-the-art of active array T/R modules (MMIC and discrete) will be given; Time delay steering; Narrow-band and Octave-bandwidth arrays; Single and multiple beam array systems (through use of Rotman lenses and Butler matrices); Digital beam forming and its advantages; space-time adaptive processing (STAP); Sidelobe canceling and adaptive nulling for jammer cancellation; Ultra-low sidelobe antennas; Research geared to reducing cost and complexity (like through use of new row-column ferroelectric lens antenna, plasma mirror antenna); Electronically scanned arrays for optical beams; Multi-user (radar, communications, ESM, ECM) shared-aperture, wideband-antennas (like ASAP [Advanced Shared Aperture Program] C-band to Ku-band system, AMRFS [Advanced Multifunction Radar Frequency System] and RECAP (Reconfigurable Aperture Program ); The low cost CTS [Continuous Transverse Stub]; Examples arrays discussed in detail.

Lecture #1a will be covered during the first halves of the first three nights of the lecture series.

Lecture #2a – Antenna Array Fundamentals – Part I:

Linear Array Fundamentals-Element spacing and scan angles for no grating lobes; Antenna beamwidth-to-scan-angle relationships; Tradeoffs:  Sidelobe level versus antenna beamwidth; Directivity; Antenna efficiency factors; Weighted antennas; Element gain paradox; Array Frequency Scanning; Monopulse difference patterns.

Day 2 February 28:

Lecture #1a – Current Status, Future Trends and Overview (cont.)

Lecture #2a – Antenna Array Fundamentals – Part I (cont.):

Two-Dimensional Rectangular Array; Using one-dimensional array results to achieve two-dimensional array results; Array separability; T-Space (sin a-ί, sine- space); grating lobes location; triangular versus rectangular lattice; directivity.

Array Thinning – Statistical design methods; Relationships between array sidelobe level and degree of array thinning; system tradeoff issues.

Day 3 March 7:

Lecture #1a – Current Status, Future Trends and Overview (cont.)

Lecture #3 – Antenna Array Fundamentals – Part II

Random Error Effects – Effects of array errors on sidelobes and directivity; Simple physical derivation of error effects; Paired echo theory; Subarrayed antennas; Examples.

Day 4 March 14:

Lecture #3 – Antenna Array Fundamentals – Part II (cont.)

Effects of Antenna Phase and Amplitude Quantization Errors;  Number of bits needed; Methods for the reduction of phase  and amplitude quantization sidelobes.

Angle Measurement – Angle measurement error; Reducing angle error by phase, frequency and beam dither.

Day 5 March 21:

Lecture #4 – Array System Issues

Detection Considerations for Phased Arrays – Beam shape loss; Beam packing loss, Optimum Beam Spacing, 1-Dimensional and 2-Dimensional search; Triangular versus rectangular beam packing.  Sequential Detection (two-step energy variant sequential detector).

Instantaneous Bandwidth for Parallel Fed Arrays – Knittle’s results; Simple approximate procedure applicable to linear, rectangular and circular aperture.  Signal-to-noise ratio and range resolution versus signal bandwidth.

Array system temperature calculation

Polarization loss and isolation

Lecture #5 Additional Phased Array Fundamentals

Radiating Elements – Waveguide; Dipole; Microstrip Patch; Notch (Wideband); Spiral; Stripline; Matching (Wide-Angle); Waveguide Simulator; Practical Limitations.

Radar Aperture – T-space (sin a - sin ί space revisited); location of grating lobes for arbitrary parallelogram lattice; Blindness phenomena and its prevention.

Instantaneous Signal Bandwidth (Further Results)

Day 6 March 28

Lecture #6 – Array Feeds

Reactive (lossless) and matched (Wilkinson).  Even/odd node analysis. Serial; Ladder; Lopez; Blass; Radial, Butler matrix; Semiconstrained and Unconstrained feed systems.

Impedance and Scattering matrices.

Rotman Lens, R-2R and R-KR circular multibeam arrays.

Diode Phase-Shifters:  Switched-Line; Hybrid-Coupled; Loaded-Line.

Ferrite Phase-Shifters:  Non-Reciprocal Latching; Dual Mode.

Day 7 April 4:

Lecture #7a – Limited Scan Arrays – Part I

Where used.

Fundamental Theorem specifying minimum number of phase shifters needed for a specified scan angle.

Method for realizing this minimum using overlapped subarray antenna elements.

Implementation with HIPSAF type system and Microwave Landing System (MLS) array system.

Reflector and Lens Systems; Single and dual reflectors; Scan limits; Element utilization factor (EUF); Antenna efficiency; Sidelobe level; Null depth; Example designs.

Lecture #7b – Limited Scan Arrays – Part II

Aperiodic Arrays; Spatially Interlaced Arrays.

Multi-Mode Scanning Techniques.

Scanning Sub-Arrays using dual mode horns.

Use of spatial shifting of rows or columns to reduce grating lobes.

Use of spatial filters to reduce grating lobes.

Wideband system.

Example designs.

Lecture #7c – Example Phased Array Systems

Day 8 & 9 April 11 and 25

Lecture #8 & 9 – Tracking and Prediction Made Easy

Explained in easy physical terms will be the g-h, a-ί, g-h-k, and a-ί-g tracking filters.  The Kalman filter will also be introduced. A rigorous simple geometric least squares estimate (LSE) will be given of the g - h and g - h - k filters. This leads to the Gram-Schmidt, Givens and Householder orthonormal transformation methods for LSE.  These latter methods are called voltage methods or square-root methods.  They are less sensitive to computer roundoff errors than are the power methods.  The growing memory, fading memory, discounted, and critically damped g-h and a-ί filters will be covered and  related to the LSE filter. 

Day 10 May 2

Lecture #10a – Sidelobe Cancellers (SLC)

The simple single-loop, feed-forward canceller is first introduced in easy terms.  This is followed by a discussion of the simple single-loop feedback canceller with and without hard limiting.  The normalized feedback SLC will also be covered.  Presented will be their performance; transient response and cancellation ratio.  Next the multiple-loop SLC (MSLC) will be covered.  Applied to the MSLC will be the Gram-Schmidt, Givens and Householder orthonormal transformation methods for LSE developed for the Tracking and Prediction Made Easy lecture.  Systolic array implementations will be given.

Lecture 10b – Fully Adaptive Arrays

The optimum weight for a fully adaptive array is developed using a very simple derivation.  Methods for calculating this optimum weight are given using the Sample Matrix Inversion (SMI) algorithm, the Applebaum-Howells adaptive feedback loop method, a recursive method, and Gram-Schmidt, Givens and Householder orthonormal transformations developed for the tracking problem and for the MSLC.  The use of eigenvector beams and a whitening filter will also be developed.  It will be shown how the latter reduces the transient response.  Methods for obtaining the benefits of a fully adaptive array without its high computation and large transient time disadvantages are given.  These are the adaptive-adaptive array processing procedures, the use of eignbeam space, and the method of finding the largest eignvalues and in turn their eigenbeams.  The STAP algorithm will be introduced.  Finally the use of the Gram-Schmidt orthonormal transformation followed by a whitening filter will be applied to the reduction of SAR map speckle – the Polarization Whitening Filter.

Course Fee Schedule:

Your Registration Includes:

4 textbooks ................................................. $412

Reprints....................................................... $100

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

On-line Registration and Payment

Online registration is closed. You may call the office at (781) 245-5405 if you have questions about this course.

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Maintained by R M Stelting

Updated Thursday June 28, 2007