• Non-zero IF receiver • Receiver Bandwidth Requirements • Applications of CW radar • Related Problems
• FM-CW radar • Range and Doppler measurement • Block diagram and Characteristics • FM-CW altimeter • Multiple Frequency CW radar 50
Doppler Effect • Doppler effect implies that the frequency of a wave when transmitted by the source is not necessarily the same as the frequency of the transmitted wave when picked by the receiver. • The received frequency depends upon the relative motion between the transmitter and receiver. • If transmitter and receiver both are moving towards each other the received frequency higher, this is true even one is moving. • If they are moving apart the received signal frequency decreases and if both are stationary, the frequency remains the same. This change in frequency is known as Doppler shift. • Doppler shift depends upon the relative velocity between radar and target
• If R is the distance from the radar to target, the total number of wavelengths λ contained in the two-way path between the radar and the target are 2R/λ. • Each wavelength corresponds to a phase change of 2π radians. The total phase change in the two way propagation path is then
• If the target is in motion relative to the radar, R is changing and so will the phase. Differentiating w.r.t time gives the rate of change of phase, which is the angular frequency
• = is the radial velocity or rate of change range with time
• is the rate of change of with time is the angular frequency, where is the Doppler frequency shift. 51
• The relative velocity may be written as Vr= V.cos θ where V is the target speed and θ is angle made by the target trajectory and the line joining radar and target. When θ=0 the Doppler frequency is maximum. The Doppler is zero when the trajectory is perpendicular to the radar line of sight (θ= 900).
Figure: Doppler frequency
fd as a function of radar frequency and target relative velocity
CW RADAR • It is possible to detect moving targets by radiating unmodulated Continuous wave energy instead of radiating in the form of pulses. Continuous Wave radars makes use of Doppler effect for target speed measurements.
Figure : (a) Block diagram of a
Simple CW radar (b) Response characteristic of the doppler filter 52
• Consider the simple CW radar shown the block diagram. The transmitter generates a continuous (unmodulated) oscillation of frequency which is radiated by the antenna. • A portion of the radiated energy is intercepted by the target and is scattered, some of it in the direction of the radar, where it is collected by the receiving antenna. • If the target is in motion with a velocity Vr relative to the radar, the received signal will be shifted in frequency from the transmitted frequency by an amount as given by the equation • The plus sign associated with the Doppler frequency shift applies if the distance between target and radar is decreasing (approaching target) that is, when the received signal frequency is greater than the transmitted signal frequency. The minus sign applies if the distance is increasing (receding target). • The received echo signal at a frequency enters the radar via the antenna and is heterodyned in the detector (mixer) with a portion of the transmitter signal fo to produce a Doppler beat note of frequency fd. The sign of fd is lost in this process.
• The beat frequency amplifier eliminates the echoes from stationary targets and amplifies the Doppler echo signal. • The low-frequency cutoff must be high enough to reject the d-c component caused by stationary targets, but yet it must be low enough to pass the smallest Doppler frequency expected. Sometimes both conditions cannot be met simultaneously and a compromise is necessary. The upper cutoff frequency is selected to pass the highest Doppler frequency expected.
Advantages of CW Radar • CW Doppler radar has no blind speed. • CW Doppler radar is capable of giving accurate measurements of relative velocities. • CW Doppler radars are always on, they need low power and are compact in size. • They can be used for small to large range with high degree of efficiency and accuracy. • The performance of radar is not affected by stationary object. 53
Disadvantages of CW Doppler radar
• The maximum range of CW Doppler radar is limited by the power that radar can radiate. • The target range can not be calculated by CW Doppler radar. • There is possibility of ambiguous results when number of targets are more. Applications of CW Radar • CW Doppler radars are used where only velocity information is of intrest and actual range is not needed. E.g: in LAW and Enforcement radar applications • Measuring motion of wave on water level. • Runway monitors. • Cricket ball speed measurement.
Isolation between transmitter and receiver
• A single antenna serves the purpose of both transmission and reception in the simple CW radar. In principle, a single antenna is sufficient as the necessary isolation is obtained by the separation in frequency (as a result of doppler effect), in practice there is considerable transmitter leakage. • However, there are two reasons why the amount of transmitter leakage power should be kept at a low value. 1. The maximum power the receiver input circuitry can withstand, without being physically damaged or having its sensitivity reduced, is quite low. 2. The transmitter noise which enters the receiver from the transmitter reduces receiver sensitivity. • The amount of isolation required depends on the transmitter power and the accompanying transmitter noise as well as the ruggedness and sensitivity of the receiver. • For example, If the safe value of power which might be applied to a receiver is 10mW and if the transmitter power is 1 kW, the isolation between transmitter and receiver must be at least 50 dB. 54 • In long range CW applications, it is the level of the noise accompanying the transmitter leakage signal, rather than the damage this leakage might cause to the receiver circuitry, which determines the amount of isolation required. • The amount of isolation which can be readily achieved between the arms of practical hybrid junctions such as the magic-T, rat race, or short-slot coupler is of the order of 20 to 30 dB. • In some instances, when extreme precision is exercised, an isolation of perhaps 60 dB or more might be achieved. But one limitation of the hybrid junction is the 6-dB loss in overall performance. • The largest isolations are obtained with two antennas one for transmission, the other for reception-physically separated from one another. Isolations of the order of 80 dB or more are possible with high-gain antennas. The more directive the antenna beam and the greater the spacing between antennas, the greater will be the isolation. • The separate antennas of the AN/MPQ-46 CW tracker-illuminator of the Hawk missile system are shown
• The correct degree of isolation between transmitters and receivers can be
implemented by one of two methods: 1) Use two antennas, physically separated by a given distance, or; 2) Use the appropriate duplexer with a single-antenna system. 55
Intermediate-frequency receiver Limitation of Zero IF receiver: • Receivers of super heterodyne receiver type are also called homodyne receivers, or super heterodyne receivers with zero IF. • However, this simpler receiver is not very sensitive because of increased noise at the lower intermediate frequencies caused by flicker effect. • Flicker-effect noise occurs in semiconductor devices such as diode detectors and cathodes of vacuum tubes. The noise power produced by the flicker effect varies as 1/fα where α is approximately unity. • At the lower range of frequencies (audio or video region), where the Doppler frequencies usually are found, the detector of the CW receiver can introduce a considerable amount of flicker noise, resulting in reduced receiver sensitivity. • For short-range, low-power, applications this decrease in sensitivity might be tolerated • But for maximum efficiency with CW radar, the reduction in sensitivity caused by the simple Doppler receiver with zero IF cannot be tolerated.
Non zero IF Receiver:
• Flicker effect noise reduces the receiver sensitivity of a CW Radar with zero IF (Simple Doppler radar). In order to increase the sensitivity and efficiency we go for CW Radar with Non-zero IF. 56
• Figure above shows the block diagram of a CW radar whose receiver operates with a nonzero IF. Separate antennas are shown for transmission and reception.
• Instead of the usual local oscillator found in the conventional super heterodyne receiver, the local oscillator (or reference signal) is derived in the receiver from a portion of the transmitted signal mixed with a locally generated signal of frequency equal to that of the receiver IF.
• Since the output of the mixer Consists of two sidebands on either side of the carrier plus higher harmonics, a narrow band filter selects one of the sidebands as the reference signal.
• The improvement in receiver sensitivity with an intermediate-frequency super
heterodyne might be as much as 30 Db.
Limitations of CW radar with Non Zero IF
• False targets
• Unable to detect the range of the target
Receiver bandwidth requirements
• Bandwidth B, BW or Δf is the difference between the upper and lower cut-off frequencies of a radar receiver, and is typically measured in hertz.
• In case of a baseband channel or video signal, the bandwidth is equal to its upper cut-off frequency. In a Radar receiver the bandwidth is mostly determined by the IF filter stages.
• IF amplifier should be wide enough to pass the expected range of Doppler
frequencies.
• Usually expected range of Doppler frequencies will be much higher than the frequency spectrum occupied by the signal energy . So a wide band amplifier is needed. • which result in an increase in noise and a lowering of the receiver sensitivity and S/N. • If the frequency of the Doppler-shifted echo signal are known beforehand, narrowband filter-that is just wide enough to reduce the excess noise without eliminating a significant amount of signal energy might be used. 57 • If the received waveform were a sine wave of infinite duration, its frequency spectrum would be a delta function as shown in the figure (a) below and the receiver bandwidth would be infinitesimal.
• But a sine wave of infinite duration and an infinitesimal bandwidth cannot occur in nature. The more normal situation is an echo signal which is a sine wave of finite duration.
• The frequency spectrum of a finite-duration sine wave has a shape of the form [sinπ(f-f0)δ]/π(f-f0)] where f0 and δ are the frequency and duration of the sine wave, respectively, and f is the frequency variable over which the spectrum is plotted (Fig b).
Filter Banks in CW radar Receiver
• A bank of narrowband filter is required to measure the frequency of echo signals. The filter bank also increases signal to noise ratio of radar receiver.
Figure: (a) Block diagram of IF Doppler filter bank (b) frequency-response characteristic of Doppler filter bank. 58
• BW of each filter is wide enough to accept the signal energy. But not so wide to accept the noise. • The more the filters used less will be the SNR loss and less chance of missing a target. • The ability to measure the magnitude of Doppler frequency and improvement in signal to noise ratio is better in IF filter bank than in video filter bank. • Also the sign of Doppler shift (+ or -) is available which is not present in video filter bank. • Each filter of filter bank has different bandwidth.
Sign of the radial velocity
• In many applications of CW radar it is of interest to know if the target is approaching or receding. This might be determined with separate filters located on either side of the intermediate frequency. • If the echo-signal frequency lies below the carrier, then the target is receding; whereas if the echo frequency is greater that the carrier, then the target is approaching.
Figure: Spectra of received signals. (a) No Doppler shift, no relative target motion; (b) approaching target; (c) receding target. 59
• However, the Doppler-frequency spectrum ”folds over” in the video because of the action of the detector, and hence the information about whether the doppler shift is positive or negative is lost. But it is possible to determine its sign from a technique borrowed from single-sideband communication. • If the transmitter signal is given by, Et = Eocos wot • The echo signal from the moving target will be, Er = K1E0cos [(wo + wd)t + φ] where, E0 = amplitude of the transmitted signal K1 = a constant determined from the radar equation wo = angular frequency of transmitted signal, rad/sec wd = dopper angular frequency shift, rad/sec φ = a constant phase shift, which depends upon the range of initial detection (i.e., distance between the radar and the target)
• The sign of the Doppler frequency, and therefore the direction of target motion, may be found by splitting the received signal into two channels as shown 60
• In channel A the signal is processed as in a simple CW radar. The receiver signal and a portion of the transmitter signal heterodyne in the detector (mixer) to yield a difference signal,
EA = K2E0cos(±wdt + φ) • The channel B has π/2 phase delay introduced in the reference signal. The output of the channel B mixer is
EB = K2E0 cos(±wdt + φ +π/2)
• If the target is approaching (positive doppler),the outputs from the two channels are,
EA = K2E0 cos(wdt + φ) EB = K2E0 cos(wdt + φ +π/2) on the other hand, if the target is receding (negative doppler),
EA(−) = K2E0 cos(wdt - φ)
EB(−) = K2E0 cos(wdt - φ - π/2) • The sign of wd and the direction of the target’s motion may be determined according to whether the output of channel B leads or lags the output of channel A. • One method of determining the relative phase relationship between the two channels is to apply the outputs to a synchronous two-phase motor. The direction of motor rotation is an indication of the direction of the target motion.
Applications of CW radar
• Police speed monitor
• Rate-of-climb meter (During aircraft take off) • Vehicle counting • As a replacement for “5th wheel speedometer” in vehicle testing • Antilock braking system • Collision avoidance • In railways as speedometer instead of tachometer • Advance warning system for approaching targets • Docking speed measurement of large ships • Intruder alarms • Measurement of velocity of missiles, baseball etc
