Airport Surveillance Radar (ASR) Solid-State Transmitter Demonstration

摘要

Present versions of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) AirportSurveillance Radar (ASR) use either magnetron or klystron radar transmitter configurations. These radars transmit a simple pulse waveform and use the peak power capabilities in the detection process. Solid-state technology does not allow for transmission of high-peak power pulses in the S-band. As a consequence, the solid-state transmitter uses the average power capabilities of the transmitted pulses. A longer, lower peak power pulse is transmitted. The pulse is coded to increase the bandwidth of the transmitted waveform. Upon reception of the echo, the long pulse is compressed to provide the range resolution of a shorter pulse. This report presents results of tests of a solid-state transmitter system developed by ITT and Thomson-CSF under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRDA) with the FAA. The demonstration system was tested at the ASR-9 test facility at the FAA Technical Center, Atlantic City International Airport, NJ. The tests performed were divided into three major categories; transmitter tests, receiver tests, and system tests. The transmitter tests included measurements of the waveforms and operating frequencies; the output power; the output spectrum; and a maintainability demonstration. The receiver tests included measurements of the noise figure, dynamic range, bandwidth, and waveform characteristics at the output of the pulse compressor. The system tests included measurements of the pulse compression time sidelobe performance, stability, detection performance, and range resolution.