Time Shared Ubiquitous Radar Architecture for Detection of Slow Moving Targets

Abstract

Surveillance Radars designed using traditional methods have limitations with respect to power, maintainability and reliability. Currently techniques are being employed to improve detection through the use of higher transmit power or transmit gain. Higher transmit power impacts weight and higher antenna gain requirement necessitates increase in antenna size. Use of innovative radar architectures and signal processing techniques provide a solution for such Size, Weight and Power (SWaP) constraints. Techniques by increasing Time on Target with parallel processing improve target detection. Ubiquitous Radar architectures allow simultaneous and effective utilisation of resources which theoretically provide an infinite Time on Target. This paper a technique is proposed to synthesize multiple beams simultaneously and process the beams in parallel which effectively improves the Time on Target. Customised Ubiquitous Radar architecture is proposed to improve radar detection capability of slow moving targets without increasing the radiated power and antenna aperture. This is achieved through effective utilisation of the RF hardware resources. Paper also explores possibility of using MIMO waveforms to improve update rate and detecting fast moving targets. Proposed architecture can be used in both FMCW and Pulsed Radar configurations. The proposed signal processing schemes were simulated and feasibility was ascertained for various target scenarios.