1.56 THz Spot Scanning Radar Range for Fully Polarimetric W-Band Scale Model Measurements

摘要

A radar transceiver operating at 1.56 THz was recently developed to obtain coherent, fully polarimetric W-band (98 GHz) Radar Cross Section (RCS) images of 1:16 scale-model targets. The associated optical system operates by scanning a small focused beam of swept frequency radiation across a scale-model target to resolve individual scattering centers and to obtain the scaled RCS values for the centers. Output from a tunable microwave source (10-17 GHz) is mixed with narrow band submillimeter-wave radiation in a Schottky diode mixer to produce the chirped transmit signal. Two high-frequency Schottky diode mixers are used for reception of the V-pol and H-pol receive states, with a fourth mixer providing a system phase reference. The full 2x2 complex polarization scattering matrix (PSM) for each resolved center is obtained following off-line data processing. Measurement examples of five simple calibration objects and a tank are presented.