Phased Array Radar Design

This is a 3-day course covering both the principles and technology of the phased array antenna itself and the overall system significance, design and the operation the phased array permits.

Day 1

• Radar introduction
  • Electromagnetic waves, radiation
  • Composition of a radar, the subsystems
  • Radar functions and types
  • The Antenna
  • The emergence of the "multi-function" radar
• Antenna principles
  • Microwave optics
  • Pattern formation, weighting
  • Sidelobe concerns, blanking and cancellation
  • "Ultra low" sidelobe antennas (ULSA)
  • "Sum" and "Difference" patterns
  • Electronic scan; the phased array

Day 2

• Phased array design
  • Behavior with scanning; impedance, grating lobes, real and virtual space, the lattice dimensions
  • Survey of feed systems; constrained feeding, space feeding
  • Componentry; lenses, phase shifters, time delay
  • The advent of digital beam forming
  • The advent of solid-state amplification, the "receive array"
  • Example systems
• Beam steering logic
  • For volume search
  • For track sampling
  • For special functions, dwells

Day 3

• Adaptivity; the challenge, the problem and trade-offs
• Radar system engineering, the phased array impact
  • Functional allocation in multi-function radars
  • Mode definitions, timing and control techniques
• Testing of phased arrays; in development, in production, in the field
• Major developments underway, what to watch for
• Considerations unique to airborne radar
• Concluding discussion, course review

Course Materials:

To be announced.

Instructor

Robert T. Hill -a native of Des Moines, Iowa. Mr. Hill graduated from Iowa State University in 1957 He served as an officer in the US Air Force from 1958 to 1960 and worked in aircraft control and warning. He then took employment with the Navy Department in Washington,DC, as an engineer in shipboard radar. Here he was responsible for much of the formative work in the AN/SPY-1 phased array radar for the AEGIS. He was the Navy program manager from 1970 to 1975. He was given increasing responsibilities until he became civilian director of the Naval Sea Systems command's radar group which covered all US Navy shipboard surveillance radars.