USOO9024.

815B2

(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 9,024.815 B2

Brooks (45) Date of Patent: May 5, 2015
(54) DIRECT-TO-DIGITAL SOFTWARE-DEFINED 5,584,068 A 12/1996 Mohindra
RADAR 6,009, 126 A 12/1999 Bezooijen
6,181,734 B1 1/2001 Palermo
6,192.225 B1 2/2001 Arpaia et al.
(75) Inventor: John W. Brooks, Huntsville, AL (US) 6.512.475 B1* 1/2003 Bogatyrev et al. .............. 342/22
6,657.577 B1 * 12/2003 Gregersen et al. .............. 342/22
(73) Assignee: Brooks Engineering International, 6,882,834 B1 4/2005 Balboni
LLC, Huntsville, AL (US) 7,151,925 B2 12/2006 Ting et al.
7,511,654 B1* 3/2009 Goldman et al. ............... 342/22
(*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this 7,528,762 B2 5/2009 Cerwin
ded or adiusted under 35 7,607,494 B2 10/2009 Alft
patent 1s extende 7.953,184 B2 * 5/2011 Lee et al. ...................... 375.316
U.S.C. 154(b) by 363 days. 7.956,640 B2 * 6/2011 Gupta et al. .................... 326/39
7.991,013 B2 * 8/2011 Gupta et al. ....... ... 370,481
(21) Appl. No.: 13/482,022 2007/0222661 A1* 9/2007 Stagliano et al. ........... 342/26R
(Continued)
(22) Filed: May 29, 2012
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
(65) Prior Publication Data
Yeary, M.; Kelley, R.; Meier, J.; Ong, S.; Palmer, R., “Compact
US 2012/0313813 A1 Dec. 13, 2012 Digital Receiver Development for Radar Based Remote Sensing.”
Related U.S. Application Dat Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Proceed
elated U.S. Application Uata ings, 2008. IMTC 2008. IEEE, vol., no., pp. 1761,1765, May 12-15,
(60) Provisional application No. 61/490,803, filed on May 2008.*
27, 2011. (Continued)
(51) Int. Cl.
GOIS I.3/58 (2006.01) Primary Examiner — John B Sotomayor
GOIS 7/20 (2006.01) Assistant Examiner — Marcus Windrich
GOIS 7/288 (2006.01) (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm — George P. Kobler; Lanier
(52) U.S. Cl. Ford Shaver & Payne P.C.
CPC. G0IS 7/20 (2013.01); G0IS 7/288 (2013.01)
(58) Field of Classification Search (57) ABSTRACT
CPC ............................... G01S 13/885; G01S 13/89 A direct-to-digital software defined radar system includes a
USPC ............................................ 342/22, 162, 195 high-speed digitizer coupled directly to a receive antenna and
See application file for complete search history. outputs a digital signal to a processor which receives the
digitized signal, along with an arbitrarily-defined reference
(56) References Cited signal provided by signal generator, and indexes the signal
data according to time and geo-location, arranges the data
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS according to a three-dimensional data structure, declutters
5.325,095 A 6, 1994 Vadnais and filters and refines the data for storage or display.
5.438,692 A 8, 1995 Mohindra
5,446,461 A 8, 1995 Frazier 6 Claims, 7 Drawing Sheets

IMU N 405 GS
Antenna
Receive

404
10

Adaptive
102 low Noise Processing
Amp
40

208

Transmit

204

402
 US 9,024.815 B2
Page 2

(56) References Cited Pan, J., et al; “DC offset and low frequency noise compensation for
direct-conversion receiver in pulse compression Radar'; Antenna
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS Technology (iWAT), 2011 International Workshop; Mar. 2011; pp.
255-258.
2009,0009155 A1* 1/2009 Hosokawa et al. ........ 324f7 6.38 Loke, A. et al., “Direct conversion radio for digital mobile phones—
2009.0167589 A1 7, 2009 BalSOv design issues, status, and trends'; Microwave Theory and Tech
2010 OO66585 A1 3, 2010 Hibbard niques, IEEE Transactions; Nov. 2002: pp. 2422-2435; vol. 50, No.
2013/0093.611 A1* 4/2013 Crowley et al. ................. 342/22 11.
Harris, F, etal; "Software defined radio; Part 22 in a series of tutorials
OTHER PUBLICATIONS on instrumentation and measurement'; Instrumentation Measure
ment Magazine, IEEE.; Feb. 2010; pp. 23-32; vol. 13, No. 1.
U.S. Appl. No. 13/122,475, filed Aug. 30, 2010, Morishita, Y, et al. Mitola, J.; "The software radio architecture'; Communications Maga
U.S. Appl. No. 12/281,668, filed Mar. 5, 2007, Hosokawa, Y., et al. zine, IEEE; May 1995; pp. 26-38; vol. 33, No. 5.
Griffiths, H.; "New Ideas in FM Radar'; Electronics Communication Mitola, J: “Software radio architecture: a mathematical perspective':
Engineering Journal; Oct 1990; pp. 185-194; vol. 2, No. 5. Selected Areas in Communications, IEEE Journal; Apr. 1999: pp.
Namgoong, W., etal; “Direct-conversion RF receiver design'; Com 514-538; vol. 17, No. 4.
munications, IEEE Transactions; Mar. 2001; pp. 518-529; vol. 49,
No. 3. * cited by examiner
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1. 2
DIRECT-TO-DIGITAL SOFTWARE-DEFINED Likewise, elimination of hardware components and the
RADAR adaptability of the system, has become a goal of radar design.
But, such prior solutions still require RF down-conversion
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED with the corresponding LO and mixer hardware.
APPLICATIONS This invention eliminates the need for radar receiver hard
ware, specifically the Local Oscillator (LO) and radio fre
This non-provisional application claims the benefit of pri quency (RF) and Intermediate Frequency (IF) Mixers, that
ority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/490,803, have classically been employed since the inception of radar.
filed May 27, 2011, and incorporated by reference as if fully
set forth herein. 10 SUMMARY

BACKGROUND For purposes of Summarizing the invention, certain

aspects, advantages, and novel features of the invention have
1. Field been described herein. It is to be understood that not neces
The present invention relates generally to radar systems, 15 sarily all such advantages may be achieved in accordance
and, in particular to radar Systems comprising direct-to-digi with any one particular embodiment of the invention. Thus,
tal receive signal conversion. the invention may be embodied or carried out in a manner that
2. Description of the Problem and Related Art achieves or optimizes one advantage or group of advantages
RF communications systems, including radar systems, as taught herein without necessarily achieving other advan
employ a Superheterodyne-generated wave modulated with tages as may be taught or Suggested herein.
an information signal that must be down-converted by a An object of the invention described herein is to provide a
receiver to extract the information signal. It has been neces direct-to-digital software-defined radar that eliminates the
sary to convert the RF energy that is received at the receiver majority of receiver hardware, replacing that hardware with a
antenna into a format that can be interpreted by a human, or high-speed analog-to-digital converter (ADC) such that sig
computer, into a meaningful target image or display. This has 25 nal and data processing is carried directly on the received and
been accomplished by down-converting the RF energy sampled radio frequency (RF) data. No Intermediate Fre
through one or more IF stages into a baseband frequency, at quency (IF) or Baseband frequency data is required. This
which point the target could be displayed on an oscilloscope arrangement improves the processing of data, by eliminating
or similar device. Conventional systems use an ever-increas the errors introduced by the hardware.
ingly complex series of amplifiers and filters to convert a 30 A further object is to significantly reduce radar system
received signal from an intermediate frequency (IF) signal to development time by eliminating the design cycle for those
a baseband signal. Most such systems employ a local oscil hardware components.
lator (LO) to essentially provide a reference signal of match Yet another object is to provide a radar system that allows
ing frequency to that received at the antenna in order to flexible and rapid reconfiguration of the radar System through
provide a template by which the received signal is multiplied, 35 adaptive waveform generation in response to changes in the
or correlated, with a mixer and then filtered. target environment due to clutter, electromagnetic interfer
Following the widespread availability of digital technol ence (EMI), and other environmental disturbances.
ogy, the baseband signal was converted to digital formats by These and other embodiments of the present invention will
one or more ADCs and sent to a radar signal processor (RSP). also become readily apparent to those skilled in the art from
The conversion of the baseband signal to digital format 40 the following detailed description of the embodiments having
allowed for the rapid growth in complexity of modern radar. reference to the attached figures, the invention not being
Some recent receiving process techniques have sought to limited to any particular embodiment(s) disclosed.
bypass the IF stage through a direct conversion technique;
however, even this class of receivers requires the use of an BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
LO. The use of an LO still introduces a number of sources of 45
error, among which include spurs, image-rejection issues, The present invention is described with reference to the
additional complex filtering, etc. accompanying drawings. In the drawings, like reference
In recent years the separation between radar and commu numbers indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
nications hardware and software has become blurred to the FIG. 1 is a functional schematic depicting a prior art Super
point that modern radars use many of the same modulation 50 heterodyne radar receiver typically employed for pulse type
techniques as modern radios. Of particularinterest is the class radars;
of Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplex (OFDM) wave FIG. 2 is a functional schematic depicting a prior art trans
forms used in the cellular phone industry applied now to mitter and receiver for a radar that uses a reference waveform
radar, and specifically to Ground Penetrating Radar. from the transmitter, in this case a Frequency Modulated
As the complexity of modern radars and their waveforms 55 (FM) waveform, although other waveforms are possible;
increase, so also does the complexity of the receiver hard FIG. 3 is a functional schematic depicting an exemplary
ware, and the duration of the engineering design cycle. The implementation of a direct-to-digital Software defined radar
concept of software-defined radio (“SDRadio), gained system.
prominence, the goal of which is to ultimately eliminate all FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an exemplary process flow of
receiver hardware and couple the receive antenna directly to 60 the radar data processing as received at an adaptive process
a fast analog-to-digital converter (ADC). However, that goal ing unit (APU) from the ADCs;
has yet to be achieved in the domain of SDRadio. In the paper FIG. 5 is a functional schematic depicting an embodiment
“Software-defined radio receiver: dream to reality”. Bagheri, of a direct-to-digital software defined radar employing both
et. al., 29 show the continued reliance on the LO and mixers frequency modulation and pulse modulation RF techniques;
within the SDRadio architecture. The most recent research on 65 FIGS. 6 A and 6B depict an example of creation of a
SDRadio reveals the persistent use the LO and mixer hard 3-dimensional radar "data cube' that takes place in the APU:
Wa. and
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3 4
FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate various visualizations of the 3-D employing a series of local oscillators, which induce errors,
radar data cube as applied to Ground Penetrating Radar. and the attendant mixers and filters, the receive signal 116 is
coupled directly to a high speed analog-to-digital converter
DETAILED DESCRIPTION (ADC1) 313, the output of which is coupled to an adaptive
processing unit (APU) 403. The transmission signal 303 is
The various embodiments of the present invention and their also coupled to the APU 403 via a coupler 202 to provide a
advantages are best understood by referring to FIGS. 1 reference signal 208 that is also converted back to a digital
through 8 of the drawings. The elements of the drawings are signal through a high-speed ADC 314 the output of which is
not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon provided to the APU 403. In addition, the APU 403 receives
clearly illustrating the principles of the invention. Throughout 10
geo-position information from either or both of an inertial
the drawings, like numerals are used for like and correspond measuring unit (IMU) 405 and a global positioning system
ing parts of the various drawings. (GPS) 404. Finally, control functions of the entire system may
This invention may be provided in other specific forms and beachieved by a single common processor, or computer, 401,
embodiments without departing from the essential character described in further detail below.
istics as described herein. The embodiments described above 15
are to be considered in all aspects as illustrative only and not The AWG preferably allows a user to custom define a wide
restrictive in any manner. The appended claims rather than the variety of analog waveform parameters of the transmission
following description indicate the scope of the invention. pulse 303, including frequency, bandwidth, sweep character
FIG. 1 depicts a typical superheterodyne radar receiver istics, Pulse Repetition Interval (PRI), and pulse length. The
with a receive antenna 101 that receives a reflected RF signal AWG 402 generates signals that may be uniform from signal
from a target and the signal is amplified by a low-noise RF to signal, or, wherein each transmitted signal differs in some
amplifier 102. The amplified signal 116 is applied to an input characteristic, either randomly or according to a pre-pro
of an RF mixer 103. The RF mixer 103 correlates the received grammed sequence. A Suitable example of Such a device is
signal 116 by a local oscillator signal 104, and the product is found in the EUVISDSM303-V4 Arbitrary Chirping Module
then low-pass filtered by the low pass filter 105. These opera 25 offered by Euvis, Inc., of Simi Valley, Calif. In practice, the
tions are performed in order to shift the received signal 116 frequency sweep ranged from 100 MegaHertz (MHz) to
spectrum from a very high RF to an IF 118. The IF 118 is then about 10 GHz. Additionally, suitable high-speed ADCs 313,
divided into two paths via a splitter 106 and is then passed to 314 are found in the Guzik WDM 50822-channel high-speed
baseband mixers 109 and 110, which multiply the IF signal digitizer operating in a dual-channel 20 Giga-Samples-Per
118 with quadrature phase replicas of the second local oscil 30 Second (GSps) mode from Guzik Technical Enterprises of
lator 107 which are passed through a hybrid circuit 108. The Mountain View, Calif. ADCs 313,314, may be one ADC and
resulting in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) signals are low-pass can accept both the received signal 116 and the reference
filtered by filters 111 and 112, then sampled (digitized) by the signal 208 simultaneously and output both channels in paral
analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) 113 and 114. Those digi lel over a memory for processing by the APU 403.
tal data are then applied to a radar signal processor (RSP) 115 35 FIG. 5 depicts a more detailed version of An exemplary
for further processing. The section comprising the elements Software-defined radar developed for practical application as
from LO1 104 to the second and third low pass filters 111,112 a ground-penetrating radar. This embodiment successfully
is referred to herein as the down-conversion section 120. demonstrated the use of two different waveforms for two
FIG.2 depicts a conventional prior art radar transmitter and distinctly different functions: (1) Non-destructive inspection
receiver as employed for frequency modulated (FM) or phase 40 (NDI) of highway bridge reinforcement bar (REBAR)
modulated (PM) waveforms, or any number of modern radar delamination; and (2) Detection and classification of deep
waveforms. In this example, the FM waveform is assumed. A tunnels for Homeland Defense applications.
signal generator 201 produces a linear FM waveform, an A control computer 401 provides all control and signal/
attenuated portion of which, called the Reference Signal 208, image processing functions. A timing/synchronization Source
is directed by coupler 202 to mixer 205. Power amplifier 203 45 1101 provides a trigger signal, at appropriate intervals, to
amplifies the bulk of the generated signal to the input of the either an AWG 402 or, optionally, a pulse generator 201b. A
transmit antenna 204. Upon reception form a target at receive suitable pulse generator is the Model 3600 Gauss impulse
antenna 101, the received RF signal is amplified by low noise generator offered by Picosecond Pulse Laboratory (PSPL) of
RF amplifier 102 and that amplified signal 116 is multiplied in Boulder, Colo. Accordingly, the system is capable of either
mixer 205 by the reference signal 208. Because the frequency 50 FM or pulse modulation modes. It will be appreciated, how
of the amplified received signal 116 is very near the frequency ever, that because the Gauss impulse couples poorly with an
of the reference signal 208 (for the case of an FM waveform), antenna, it may be necessary to modify the pulse shape, for
the result of the multiplication in mixer 205 is a “beat signal example, to a “Derivative of Gaussian monocycle with a
207, the components of which will be used to determine the pulse shaper 1102, for example, a PSPL Model 5212A
range to the target. 55 Impulse Forming Network. It is important to note that in a
With reference now to FIG. 3, an exemplary direct-to future embodiment of this invention, both FM and PM wave
digital software defined radar system comprises an arbitrary forms may be generated with a single Direct Digital Synthe
waveform generator (AWG) 402 which generates an arbi sizer (DDS) board 8 for enhanced flexibility and program
trary, user-defined waveform in a digital signal for transmis mability.
Sion, after conversion with a digital-to-analog converter 402a. 60 The generated waveform is then applied to the input of a
The transmission signal 303 is coupled to a transmission switch, preferably a Single-Pole N-Throw (SPnT) RF switch
antenna 204 as in the conventional case, preferably after 1104, following a logical OR gate 1103. The output port of the
amplification with amplifier 203. RF switch 1104 is controlled by the Trigger 1101, and the
The receiver components comprise a receive antenna 101 signal is passed to one or more transmit amplifier/antenna
for coupling impingent signals to the receiver as a received 65 chains 203, 204 in sequence. The antenna assembly 204 is
signal 116 via a low noise amplifier (LNA) 102, again, as in preferably designed to operate over a very wide bandwidth,
the conventional case described above. However instead of from less than 100 MHz to greater than 3.0 GHz.
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5 6
The transmitted waveform travels through the transmission than the target return and must be removed as described later.
medium, in this example, concrete, and interacts with the The C-scan, depicted in FIG. 8, is represented by a horizontal
embedded objects, e.g., REBAR 1105. The reflected wave slice of a number of stacked B-scans. FIG. 8 illustrates the
form is received by an array of receive antennas 101, and appearance of a target 801 at a specific depth (vertical scale).
coupled to low noise RF amplifiers 102, possibly through an A declutter module 506 removes the majority of clutter and
RF switch 1106 ifusing multiple receive antennas. Following 'ground return, applying either of three approaches: (1)
amplification, the received signal 116 may be amplified a final moving-average cancellation; (2) clutter estimation by Sys
time by an additional low-noise amplifier 102 depending tem identification; and (3) singular value decomposition.
upon any deleterious effects imparted by the switch 1106. Either of the three methods are software-selectable depend
The amplified RF signal is then directly sampled and digi 10 ing upon conditions. Other methods of declutter functions
tized by a high-speed ADC 313. It will be appreciated that the may be used as well, including those now known or hereafter
received signal is digitized without down-conversion to IF developed.
stages, eliminating the need for Superfluous mixers, LO's and A filter and migration Module 507 applies 3-D filtering to
filters. The digitized signal is then coupled to the APU 403, reduce noise and various "edge effects” which are artifacts
performs Near-Real-Time (NRT) signal and image process 15 that may be induced by the declutter module 506. 3-D filter
1ng. ing is performed using a 3-D convolution technique, or simi
FIG. 4 depicts the modules comprising the APU 403. As lar processes, examples of which are those used in 3-D mag
described above with reference to FIGS. 3 and 5, the incom netic resonance imaging and tomography. Particularly, for
ing raw RF signals are immediately digitized in the ADC 313, GPR application, the thus filtered 3-D data are preferably
at a sampling rate equal to or greater than the Nyquistrate, and “migrated in order to refine target location information for
are then passed to a data buffer 503 which collects the data detected targets and further reduce noise, which may be
into packets, or frames (collectively, “buffered data'), to accomplished using algorithms similar to techniques used in
reduce the effective data rate into the processing modules locating seismic phenomena. The result of data migration is
which follow. In addition, the APU 403 receives the reference to clarify the smeared appearance of typical GPR data and
signal 208 after it is digitized by the ADC 314, and which the 25 “focus it onto a more clearly defined location.
APU 403 may digitally correlate with the digitized receive Following the processing described in the above para
signal. When this function is performed, the resulting data graphs, the resulting 3-D data can be displayed on the laptop
output is a correlated signal data, which is buffered as display or other display device 502, and can also be recorded
described above. on a media storage device 501.
The buffered data are input to a navigation data integration 30 Many of the processes performed by the above-described
module 504 that interleaves navigation data from GPS 404 embodiment(s) may be performed by a computer-based appa
and IMU 405 with the buffered data and outputs a resulting ratus. Specifically, direct-to-digital software radar, as
data stream that identifies data according to time and geo described and shown above may be may be achieved, in part,
location. Thus, any particular packet of radar data may be through the execution of software one or more processors, or
time- and geolocation-indexed commensurate with the preci 35 computers, and may be locally or remotely accessible. The
sion of the GPS sampling, for example, in the prototype computers may be uniprocessor or multiprocessor machines.
described above, 5 Hz and +/-5 cm distance. Additionally, these computers include an addressable storage
Geo-referenced data are then provided to a radar data medium or computer accessible medium, Such as random
arrangement module 505 that arranges the data into a 3-di access memory (RAM), erasable programmable read-only
mensional “cube' data structure, which is a conventionally 40 memory (EPROM), read-only memory (ROM), hard disks,
used, standard representation of radar data regardless of radar floppy disks, laser disk players, optical disk players, digital
type. 3-D data cube structure may arrange data according to Video devices, and other components operable to transmit
Range, Azimuth and Elevation data, or may arrange data by and/or store data.
down-range, cross-range and depth, depending on the data The processor(s) 401 can be the same as the processor
that is most relevant to the desired function of the system. In 45 controlling the transmitting antenna firing or it can be sepa
yet another embodiment that may involve Space-Time Adap rate, and can be implemented by a field programmable gated
tive Processing (STAP) or Ground Moving-Target Indicator array (FPGA), application specific integrated chip (ASIC), a
(GMTI), the 3-D data cube would, for example, arrange the central processing unit (CPU) with a memory or other logic
data according to pulse repetition interval, antenna element device.
and range gate. 50 The processor in effect comprises a computer system. Such
FIG. 6 depicts two possible representations of the 3-D data a computer system includes, for example, one or more pro
cube. FIG. 6A represents a 3-D image of a section of rein cessors that are connected to a communication bus. The com
forcing bar (REBAR) where the axes are scan length, scan puter system can also include a main memory, preferably a
depth and antenna index. FIG. 6B illustrates a classic STAP random access memory (RAM), and can also include a sec
data cube. 55 ondary memory. The secondary memory can include, for
The 3-D data cube, in the case of GPR, can be viewed in example, a hard disk drive and/or a removable storage drive.
one of four ways: A-Scan, B-Scan, C-Scan, and finally, a 3-D The removable storage drive reads from and/or writes to a
view. The A-scan is a time-amplitude plot and represents a removable storage unit in a well-known manner that includes
single pulse return with the GPR antenna at a specific location a computer usable storage medium having stored therein
above the ground. The B-scan represents a series of A-Scans 60 computer software and/or data. The secondary memory can
as the GPR is swept in a straight line above the ground, at a include other similar means for allowing computer programs
constant height. or other instructions to be loaded into the computer system.
FIG. 7 illustrate the concept of the A-scan and B-scan. The Computer programs (also called computer control logic)
ground clutter return is shown as a dark band in the B-scan are stored in the main memory and/or secondary memory.
and is represented by the large negative amplitude of the 65 Computer programs can also be received via the communi
A-Scan. The target location is roughly identified by the hyper cations interface. Such computer programs, when executed,
bolic traces in the B-Scan. The ground return is much larger enable the computer system to perform certain features of the
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7 8
present invention as discussed herein. In particular, the com i. obtaining digitized signal data by correlating said first
puter programs, when executed, enable a control processor to digital signal with a digitized first reference signal;
perform and/or cause the performance of features of the ii. obtaining geo-indexed data by identifying said digi
present invention. Accordingly, Such computer programs rep tized data according to geo-location data from a geo
resent controllers of the computer system of a radar system. positioning device;
The control logic (software), when executed by a control iii. arranging said geo-indexed data according to a three
processor, causes the control processor to perform certain dimensional information structure, said structure
functions of the invention as described herein. comprising three of the following data parameters:
The control logic conventionally includes the manipula range, depth, azimuth, elevation, pulse width, pulse
tion of data bits by the processor and the maintenance of these 10 repetition interval, range gate, Scan length, antenna
bits within data structures resident in one or more of the element, and cross-range;
memory storage devices. Such data structures impose a iv. decluttering said arranged data; and
physical organization upon the collection of data bits stored V. migrating said arranged data.
within computer memory and represent specific electrical or 2. The radar system of claim 1, further comprising a pulse
magnetic elements. These symbolic representations, 15 generator having an output comprising a second reference
examples of which are provided above, are the means used by signal and wherein said adaptive processor unit further com
those skilled in the art to effectively convey teachings and prises an input for receiving a digitized second reference
discoveries to others skilled in the art. signal.
The control logic is generally considered to be a sequence 3. The radar system of claim 2, wherein said step of obtain
of computer-executed Steps. These steps generally require ing digitized signal data comprises correlating said first digi
manipulations of physical quantities. Usually, although not tal signal with either of said digitized first reference signal and
necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical, mag said digitized second reference signal.
netic, or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred, 4. A radar System consisting essentially of
combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated. a signal waveform generator for providing a transmit signal
It should also be understood that the programs, modules, 25 that is arbitrarily defined, and a reference signal corre
processes, methods, and the like, described herein are but an sponding to said transmit signal;
exemplary implementation and are not related, or limited, to a transmit antenna for coupling said transmit signal to a
any particular computer, apparatus, or computer language. transmission medium;
Rather, Various types of general purpose computing machines a receive antenna for coupling a reflected transmit signal
or devices may be used with programs constructed in accor 30 from said transmission medium to a receiver and output
dance with the teachings described herein. ting a received signal, said received signal correspond
As described above and shown in the associated drawings, ing to said transmit signal;
the present invention comprises an apparatus for direct-to one or more high-speed digitizers directly responsive to
digital software-defined radar. While particular embodiments said receive antenna for converting said received signal
of the invention have been described, it will be understood, 35 into a digitized received signal and for converting said
however, that the invention is not limited thereto, since modi reference signal into a digitized reference signal;
fications may be made by those skilled in the art, particularly a processor responsive to said digitizer and said waveform
in light of the foregoing teachings. It is, therefore, contem generator, said processor configured with control logic
plated by the appended claims to cover any such modifica which, when executed, performs the steps of:
tions that incorporate those features or those improvements 40 i. obtaining digitized received signal data by correlating
that embody the spirit and scope of the present invention. said digitized received signal with said digitized ref
What is claimed is: erence signal;
1. A radar System comprising: ii. indexing said digitized received signal data with time
a receive antenna having an output comprising a received and geo-location data from a geo-positioning device;
signal; 45 iii. arranging indexed data according to a data structure,
an arbitrary waveform generator for providing an arbi said data structure configured to reference said
trarily defined waveform signal, said arbitrary waveform indexed data according to at least three parameters
generator having an output comprising a first reference consisting of range, depth, azimuth, elevation, pulse
signal corresponding to said received signal; width, pulse repetition interval, range gate, Scan
an analog-to-digital convertor having a first input directly 50 length, antenna element, and cross-range; and
coupled to said received signal and configured to the iv. decluttering said arranged data by eliminating data
output of said receive antenna for the purpose of con indicative of non-target reflections.
Verting said received signal to a digital received signal; 5. The radar system of claim 4, wherein said processor is
a computer-based adaptive processor having a first input configured with control logic which, when executed, causes
for receiving said digital received signal and a second 55 the processor to further perform the step of:
input for receiving said first reference signal, said pro refining detected target data.
cessor being configured with a computer-readable 6. The radar system of claim 1, further comprising a low
media with control logic stored thereon which causes noise amplifier interposed between said antenna and said
said adaptive processor to perform a process comprising analog-to-digital converter.
the steps of: k k k k k