A Survey of Analog-to Digital Converters for Radar Applications.
Abstract
The ever increasing speeds and dynamic ranges of modern radar signal processors require the use of state of the art Analog-to Digital Converter (ADC) technology. In fact, many radar designs are constrained by the lack of ADCs with sufficient speed and/or dynamic range. Several trends in modern radar design are now stressing ADO technology more than ever. For example, the multiple adaptive beams of some phased array radars are now being formed by the radar signal processor. In this arrangement one or two ADOs are required for each element or subarray of the antenna. This huge increase in the required number of ADCs per radar now makes the size, power, and cost of an ADC critically important. Furthermore, the desire to sample at radar IF frequencies to digitally compute the in-phase and quadrature baseband signals can increase ADC speed requirements by 400% or more. The higher bandwidth waveforms sought by some radar designers will also raise ADO speed requirements. Coupled with these new ADO speed requirements is the requirement for more ADC dynamic range to enable processors to detect reduced signature targets in heavy clutter and ECM environments. As a result of these trends in modern radar design, renewed attention has been focused on ADO technology as it is critical to overall system performance.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1991
- Accession Number
- ADA319625
Entities
People
- R. C. Hicks