Reconfigurable, Wideband Radar Transceiver and Antenna for P-band Stretch Processing

IAI proposes to develop a Reconfigurable Wideband Radar Transceiver, with direct digital synthesis of P-band radar frequencies, novel high bandwidth P-band antenna design with high contrast ceramic material and digital implementation of receiver stretch processing, to achieve the solicitation objectives. Our innovation focuses on implementing maximum radar transceiver functionalities on high-speed digital reconfigurable platforms (FPGAs), and minimizing the number of analog components. Our Software-Defined Radar designs are based on COTS components and are modular in nature. This makes it easier to upgrade smaller units of the design with development in state-of-the-art, instead of re-designing the entire SDR. The stringent payload constraints of Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) require tight integration of all radar functionalities, including signal generation, acquisition, processing, and down-link. The proposed platform can be an enabler for low form factor radar systems to support on-going UAS based NASA missions for Biomass/ecosystems imaging in P-band. A summary of our proposed innovation are: 1. Reconfigurable digital waveform synthesizer with 600 MHz bandwidth capability. 2. Compact P-band antenna design using high-contrast ceramic materials to cover 200 MHz bandwidth. 3. Digital implementation of receiver stretch processing. 4. Low size, weight and power specifications making the radar design suitable for UAS applications.

The most promising commercial applications outside of NASA are: Arbitrary wideband waveform synthesizer High-speed digital processors Reconfigurable radar transceiver with multi-mode capabilities

The proposed technology is built upon the radar design expertise of IAI, developed over several SBIR and non-SBIR contracts. Our proposed technique can be used for a wide range of remote sensing applications for NASA including: Airborne SAR applications Miniaturized, reconfigurable radar systems for UAS Weather surveillance radar for aircrafts Earth science measurements like Biomass/ecosystems, surface deformation, topography and soil moisture measurements

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