RadarMan™

Emerging Radar Cross Section measurement needs are making it increasingly necessary to take the measurement system to the target, rather than take the target to a fixed measurement site. With this in mind, QuarterBranch Technologies, Inc. set out to build the first truly portable pulsed-IF RCS measurement system without sacrificing capabilities most users require. The result is RadarMan™, with a core unit that can attain measurement speeds rivaling the practical limits of other systems, with equal measurement sensitivity.

Real-time plotting capabilities are extensive, including near real-time ISAR and SAR imaging. In addition to the real-time plotting package, each RadarMan™ system includes a single-seat license of QuarterBranch's offline processing/plotting package, Data Display.

RadarMan™ is a compact, lightweight, pulsed-IF radar system that is engineered to be cost-effective, highly reliable, and supportable at a level not achievable in other mainstream RCS measurement systems. These key attributes revolve around the remarkably unique architecture and physical package of the product in contrast to other pulsed-IF acquisition systems. Specifically, all of RadarMan's core functions, including all digital control, data and timing circuitry, IF circuitry, frequency-agile synthesizer, and all frequency up-and-down conversion are contained in a single 7-inch tall box that weighs approximately 25 pounds.

Product Specifications

Radar Hardware

Frequency Coverage: 2-18 GHz (other bands available as options)
Frequency Switching Speed: <5 µs
Maximum PRF: 2 MHz
Pulse Width: User selectable from 5 ns to 2000 ns
Frequency Steps: 1 to 1024 in each of up to eight table entries (in powers of 2)
Coherent Integration: 2 to 65536 (in powers of 2)
Polarization: Full Matrix
Video Bandwidth: User selectable to 100 MHz or 250 MHz
Phase Modulation: Up to 16 phase states - Biphase, Incremental, Complementary, PN, Custom sequence from file
Receive Channels: 1 Standard, 2 Optional
Range Gates: 1 Standard, 2 Optional
Loopback Modes: IF Loop, RF Converter, Low-power, High-power. One loop can be configured as a fast-mode loop to be used as an interleaved drift measurement
Can adapt to any required front end/antenna requirements (e.g., transmit power, multiple antenna bands, variable receive RF attenuation)

User Interface Software

Full control of all radar hardware parameters
Intuitive operation
Integrated target/antenna motion control
Simple calibration/background reference collection
Image Parameter Calculator
Save/recall radar parameter setups, calibration, background references
Wide selection of real-time plot displays: Line plots, Intensity Charts, Intensity Graphs
RCS or Phase vs Frequency, Time, Position, Range (FFT), Doppler Frequency, Doppler Velocity
Real-time SAR and ISAR Images
I-Channel vs. Q-Channel (Lissajous)
Range Walk with real-time transmit/receive bracket adjustments

Offline Processing (Data Display)

Includes single-seat license with the purchase of each RadarMan™ unit.
Intuitive interface
Allows re-plotting of RadarMan™ data and navigation through files
Simultaneously plots from multiple files or waveform entries
Creates ISAR images at any requested angle or continuously updates at requested angle increments
Creates SAR images from data collected on a rail-mounted antenna
Measures images on individual pixels or in regions
Performs Image Edit and Reconstruct for ISAR images and sector statistics for line plots
Additional features may be requested by the customer

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Last modified November 25, 2008 .