Transmitter and receiver design at L-band and X-band for FM-CW radar altimeter

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing interest in FM-CW (frequency modulated continuous wave) technology for military and civilian applications. FM-CW radar altimeters find applications to detect ground proximity during automatic landing in low-visibility condition, collision avoidance systems in vehicles, and ground penetrating radars for buried object detections such as landmines, pipelines, etc. The development of a low-power L-band and X-band FM-CW radar hardware and design of a third order loop filter for the phase locked loop (PLL) is the main focus of this paper. Results of laboratory trial for the calibration of FMCW radar hardware are presented to demonstrate the feasibility of operation at X band