An Efficient Dual-Channel Data Storage and Access Method for Spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Real-Time Processing

Guoqing Wang,Yizhuang Xie,He Chen

doi:10.3390/electronics10060662

Guoqing Wang, Yizhuang Xie + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics10060662

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Journal: Electronics	Publication Date: Mar 12, 2021
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Beijing Institute of Technology

Abstract

With the development of remote sensing technology and very large-scale integrated circuit (VLSI) technology, the real-time processing of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has greatly improved the ability of Earth observation. However, the characteristics of external memory have led to matrix transposition becoming a technical bottleneck that limits the real-time performance of the SAR imaging system. In order to solve this problem, this paper combines the optimized data mapping method and reasonable hardware architecture to implement a data controller based on the Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). First of all, this paper proposes an optimized dual-channel data storage and access method, so that the two-dimensional data access efficiency can be improved. Then, a hardware architecture is designed with register manager, simplified address generator and dual-channel Double-Data-Rate Three Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR3 SDRAM) access mode. Finally, the proposed data controller is implemented on the Xilinx XC7VX690T FPGA chip. The experimental results show that the reading efficiency of the data controller proposed is 80% both in the range direction and azimuth direction, and the writing efficiency is 66% both in the range direction and azimuth direction. The results of a comparison with the recent implementations show that the proposed data controller has a higher data bandwidth, is more flexible in its design, and is suitable for use in spaceborne scenarios.

Highlights

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a kind of high-resolution microwave imaging technology which has many characteristics, such as all-time, all-weather, highresolution and a long detection distance
The method proposed ensures that the data bandwidths in the range direction and azimuth direction achieve complete equilibrium, and reduce the use of on-chip cache resources
Based on the above method, a dual-channel data controller is implemented by using Xilinx XC7VX690T Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

Summary

Introduction

Spaceborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) is a kind of high-resolution microwave imaging technology which has many characteristics, such as all-time, all-weather, highresolution and a long detection distance. It is a radar that uses the Doppler information generated by the relative motion between the radar platform and the detected target, and uses signal processing method to synthesize a larger antenna aperture [1,2,3]. As it can penetrate clouds, soil and vegetation, it has become more and more widely used in many important fields [4,5,6]. The world’s first SAR imaging satellite, SEASAT-1, was launched in 1978, proving the feasibility of microwave imaging radar in Earth observation [10].

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Results

Conclusion