A High-Resolution Millimeter-Wave FMCW Airborne SAR with Minimum SWP Characteristics

摘要

With the increasing number of small size UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) for remote sensing, reconnaissance and surveillance applications, a demand for miniaturized and low-weight SAR sensor systems for these platforms was raised. Due to the extreme payload weight restrictions of unmanned platforms, size, weight and power (SWP) characteristics actually become dominating design drivers for UAV SAR developments. This paper focuses on the development of the miniaturized SAR sensor MISAR (MIni SAR) which was especially designed for UAVs with stringent payload SWP constraints. The paper gives an overview of the design considerations for the MISAR sensor system. The realization of the sensor is described and the results of flight test campaigns in fixed wing aircraft, rotary wing aircraft and in a small size UAV are presented.