phased array radars - past, present, and future
TRANSCRIPT
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PHASED
ARRAY RADARS -PAST, PRESENT AND
FUTURE
E.
BROOKNER
Raythe on Compan y, U.S.A.,
ABSTRACT
This i s a s w e y paper summariz ing the recent
. developments and h tu re trends in passive, active
bipolar and Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuitry
(MMIC) phased array radars for ground, ship, air, and
space applications. Covered is the DD(X ) ship radar
suite; THAAD (formerly GBR); European COBRA;
Israel BMD radar antennas; Dutch shipboard M A R ;
airborne US F-22, JSF and F-18 radars, European
AMSAR, Swedish AESA, Japan
FSX
and Israel
Phalcon; Iridium (66 satellites in orbit for total of 198
antennas) and Globalstar MM IC spac ebom e active array
systems (these last two are communications hut the
technolog y is the same as used by radar systems, in fact
the IRIDIUM T/R module technology derives from
.technology developed for a space based radar); Thales
(formerly Thomson-CSF) 4 inch MMIC wafer 94 GHz
seeker antenna; digital beamforming; ferroelectric row-
column scanning; optical electronic scanning for
communications and radar; the MMIC C-band to Ku-
band Advadced Shared Aperture Program (ASAP) and
AMRFS antenna systems
for
shared 'use for
.
comm unications,~ radar, electronics counterm easures
(ECM) and ESM; and continuous transverse stub (CTS)
voltage-variable dielectric (WD) antenna.
1.0
h
DECADES
Phased arrays have com e a long way in the last three
decades. This is illustrated by the many tube passive
arrays and solid-state active arrays, which u se dlscrete
and MM IC technology, that have been deployed or are
under development [l-24,
821;
see Figures
1
through 4
and Table 1. Figures 1 and 2 are for passive phased
arrays-the fust generation of phased arrays;Fig. 3
is
for active solid state arrays using discrete compo nents;
Fig. 4is for phased arrays using microwave analog
integrated circuits, the thud generation. The numb ers in
parentheses in the figures represent the numbers
manufactured. Note that in some cases very large
numbers have been produced, even for MM IC active
phased arrays. Also one sees that phased arrays are
being developed around the world. The People's
Republic of China has come a long way in a very short
time in the development of phase arrays passive,
active, over-the-horizon, du al band, wide-ha nd, nltra-
low-sidelobe, synthetic aperture, adaptive, digital-beam-
forming, super-resolution and pha se only null steering
[76].
The question addressed now is what doe s the
future hold
ACCOMPLISHMENTS OVER THE LAST
2
Figure I -Ex am ple U.S.A. Passive Phased Arrays Having
arge
Production
" P h a s e d A r ra y s F o r T h e New Millenium" by Eli Brookner which App ear ed in 2000
IEEE International
C o n f e r e n c e
on
P h a s e d A r r ay S y s t e m s & T e c h n o l o g y P ro c e d d i n g s , M a y 21-25,2000.0 2000
IEEE
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Figure 2 -Exam ple Passive Phased Arrays From Around the World
Figure
3
-Exam ple Discrete Active Arrays
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Figure 4 -Exam ple MMICActive Arrays Deployed and Under Development
TABLE
I
-EXAMPLE RADAR PHASED ARRAYS HAVING LARGE PRODUCTIONS
Raytheon
NITPN-25
X
824
14 850
ANIGPN-22
X 60 443
~
COBRA DANE
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2.0 DEVELOPMENT O F MMIC ACTIVE
PHASED
ARRAYS
With the recent prdduction awards for three THAAD
EDM (Engineering Development Model) radars,
COBRA radars, SAM PSON radars, F-22 and JSF
airborne radars, the planned development contracts for
t he new U S A . D D ( X ) shi p radar suite, and the on going
development of the Dutch X-band 4-faced APAR radar
the future looks very good for MMIC phased-array
radars; seeFigure 4[79,80].
3.1 Clutter Rejection for
an
Airborne System
(STAP and DPCA)
To cope with ground clutter and sidelobe jamming for
an airborne radar, extensive work is ongo ing toward the
develop men t of airborne phased array using Space-
Time Adap tive Processing (STAP) 125,261. STAP is a
general form of Displaced Phase Center Antenna
(DPCA) processing. STAP had been demonstrated
several years ago on a modified E2-C system by
NRL
[27,
281. More recently a flight demonstration STAP
provided
52
to
69 dB
of sidelobe clutter cancellation
relative to the mainbeam clutter
[29].
This system used
an
array m ounted
on
the side of an a,ucrafi. The antenna
had
11
degrees
of
freedom in azimuth and 2 in elevation
for a total of 22. Before STAP, the antenna r s
sidelobe level was -30 dBi, with STAP it was -45 dBi.
3.2 C- to Ku-band Multi-User Advanced Shared
Aperture Program (ASAP) MMIC array and
Dual-Band AMR FS and RECA P Arrays
The COBR A DA NE radar system of Figure 1 and Table
1
has a 16% bandwidth and Rotmari lens mult i-beam
array systems have a 2.5 to frequen cy bandwidth.
Technology bad been carried out to develop an active
MM IC phase-phase steered array that has over a 2 to 1
frequency bandwidth and at the same time is shared by
multiple users. Specifically the Nava l Air Weapo ns
Center (NAWC ) and Texas Instruments (TI, now part of
Raytheon) were developing a broadban d array having
continuous
coverage from C-band through K u-band that
would share the functions of radar, passive ESM
(Electronic
Support
Measures), active ECM (Electronic
Counter
Measures)
and communications [3 0 ] . To
achieve this wide bandwidth, a flared notch-radiating
elemen t was used. Cross notches were used so that
horizontal, vertical or circular polarization can be
obtained. They had built a solid state TIR module that
provides coverage
over
this wide band from C-band to
Ku-band continuously. The module bad a power output
of
2
to 4 W per element over the ban d;.a noise figure
betwee n .6.5 and 9 dB over the band and power
efficiency between 5.5 and 10%over the band. A
IO
x
IO-element array having eight active TIR modules was
built for test purposes. A typical full up array would be
approximately
29"
wide by 13 high. With this type of
array it. would ultimately be possible to use
simultaneous part of the array as radar, part of
he
array
for ESM, part of the array for ECM and part of the array
for communications. The parts used for each function
would change dynamically depending on the need.
Also, these parts c ould .be non-o verlappin g or
overlapping, depending
on
the needs. Although
the
ASAP funding has ended, the shared aperture
technology is' being pushed-forward now by the USA
Office of Naval Research
(ONR)
Advanced
Multifunction Radar Frequency System (AMRFS)
program [71, 781 and the DARF'A Reco nfigura ble
Aperture
Program
[RECAP] program.
DERA o f the UK had been developing a dual frequency
array which would enable a single radar to use L-band
for search at and X-band fo rtra ck
so
as to avoid the use
of a single comp romise frequ ency for search and track
[ 52 ] . Consideration
is
being given to the use of
waveguide L-band radiating elements and dipole X
band elements.
3.3
Table
2
lists where digital beam forming (DBF) has bee n
operationally used, some developmental systems that
have been built, and its significant advantages. The first
operational radars to use digital beamforming are the
over-the-horizon (OTH) radars. Specifically the GE
OTH-B and Raytheon ROTHR (Relocatable OTH
Radar). The ROTHR receive antenna is ahout
8,500
feet
long.
More ,recently Signaal used. digital
beamforming for their deployed 3-D stacked heam
SMA RT-L and SMA RT-S shipboard radars. The digital
beamforming is done only on receive. FoFthe SMART-
L system the antenna consists of 24 rows. The signal
from each row is down converted and pulse compressed
with SAW lines and then AiD'd with 12-bit 20 MH z
Analog Devices AID S. The signal is then modulated
onto an optical signal and passed down through a fiber
optic rotary joint to a digital beamformer where 14
beams are formed [3I].
Digital Beamforming and
Its
Potential
Table
2 Digital eamforming
(DBF)
.
OTHRMYTHEON); I -D
. MART-LAND SMART-S (SIGNAAL);
I-D STACKED BEAM SYSTEMS
D W B L O P M N T A L S Y ST E MS
ROME LAB: 32 COLUMNS,
32
INDEPENDENT BEAMS
MICOM: ARRAY FEED OF6
ELEMENTS
BRITISH MESAR: SUBARRAY DBF
BRLTISX: DBF ON TRANS. AND RTC..
.
I ? Er
ADVANTAGES:
FLEXLBILTTY:
-ANTENNA WEIGHTING
-GROWTH W T H
TECHNOLOGY .
.
ADAPTNE PROCESSEO
IMPROVED PERFORMANCE
ULTRA-LOW SIDELOBES
-DYNAMIC W G E
J A M M E R A N D C L U I T E R
SUPPRESSION
-REDUCED EM1
MULTIBEAMS
.__
LINCOLN LAB. ALLDIGITALUNF
RECEIV
R:8BIT3GSPSAC
. MSAR:
S m A R R A Y
DBF
A
number of experimental DBF systems have been
developed; see Table
2.
One is the Rome Laboratory
(Hanscom AFB, MA) 32 column linear array at C-band
that can form
32
independent beams and which uses
a
novel self-calibration system
[32].
Rome Lab. also bas
developed a fast digital heamformer that utilizes a
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systolic processor architecture [77] based on the
Quadratic Residue Number System (QRNS) [32].
MICOM (U.
S.
Army) built a 64 element feed that used
DB F for a space fed lens [33].
The experimental Brit ish MESAR S-band system does
digital beam formin g at the subarray level [34]. This
experimental system h as 16 subarrays and a total
of
918
waveguide-radiat ing elements and 156 T R solid state
modules. Roke Manor Research Ltd. of Britain has
built an experimental 13 element array using digital
beamforming on transmit
as
well as on receive [35].
This experimental system uses the Plessey SP2002 chip
running at a 400 MHz rate as a digital waveform
generator at every element. Doing digital beamforming
on m nsm i t a l lows one to put nulls in the direction of an
ARM
hreat
or
where there is high clutter.
National Defense Research Establishment of Sweden
bas buil t an experimental S-band antenna operating
between 2.8 and 3.3 GHz which does digital
beamforming using a sampling rate
of
25.8
MHz
on a
19.35 MHz IF signal [23]. The advantage of using IF
frequency sampling rather than baseband sampling is
that one doesn't have to wony about the imbalance
between the two channels, that is, the I and Q channels,
or
the DC offset. They demonstrated that , by using
digital beamforming, they could compensate for
amplitude and phase variat ions that occur from element-
to-element across angle and across the frequency band.
Via a calibration, they were able to reduce an element-
to-element gain variat ion over angle due to mutual
coupling from
I dB
to about
O.l
dB. Using
equalization, they were also able to reduce a i0.5 dB
variation in the gain over the 5 MHz bandwidth to a less
than *0.05 d variation. With this calibration and
'equalization, they were able to demonstrate peak
sidelobes 47 dB down ov er a
5 MHz
bandwidth.
A
50
dB Chebyshev weighting was used. The
RMS
of the
error sidelobes was down
65dB
from the peak near
boresight [63]. They de mon strated that the calibration
was maintained fairly well over a period of two weeks.
This work demonstrates the potential advantage offered
by digital beamforming with respect to obtaining ultra-
low antenna sidelobes. These results were not achieved
in real time in the field. The goal for the future is to
obtain these results in real time in th e field.
MIT Lincoln Laboratory developed the technology
for
an all-digital radar receiver for an airborne surveillance
array radar like that of the UHF E-2C [43]. They are
AID
sampling directly at
UHF
( -430 MHz) us ing a
Rockwell 8 bit 3 Gigabit per sec
AID
running at room
temperature. Three stages of down conversion are done
digitally and because the
AID
quantization noise is
filtered the effective number of bits of the
AID
is
increased. For example if the signal bandwidth was
only, 5
MHz
the increase in signal-to-noise ratio is 3
.GHz/2 (5 MHz) = 25 dB
so
the increase in the number
of effective bits is 25 dB divided by 6 @/bit
or
4.2 bits
to yield 12 bits total. The w hole digital receiver is on an
8 inch x 8 inch card that uses three 0.6 )m hips. In the
future these three chips could be replaced by a single
0.35 Fm CMOS chip.
The Naval Research Laboratory
(NU),
MIT Lincoln
Laboratory and NSWC are jointly developing an L-band
active array which has an ID converter at every
element [64.
65 , 811.
Using digital beamforming
NRL
demonstrated the ability to obtain a constrained
beamwidth with frequency while at the same t ime
achieving low sidelobes over specified angles and
frequen cy band s [66].
MIT Lincoln Laboratory had been developing a high-
performance, low-pow er signal processor to do digital
beamforming and signal processing for a notional X-
band Discoverer I1 space-based radar [67,6:3]. This
notional version of the system did ground moving target
indication (GMTI) and synthetic aperture radar (SAR)
mapping. I ts antenna consisted of 12 subarrays and 4
SLCs. The signal bandwidth was assumed to he 180
M H z For this system it is necessary to do the signal
processing on-board
in
real time because telemetering
the
signal down would require too
high
a data rate -35
Gbps if a 12 bit A D is assumed, well beyond the
present state-of-the-&.The on-board signal processor
must do digital beamforming, pulse compression,
doppler processing, STAF' and SLC. To do this on-
board in real time requires a signal processor capable
of
1100 G O P S (1.1 TERAOP). Lincoln Laboratory has
shown that it is feasible to do the processing on board
using a systolic array type architecture having volume