No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

"In this thesis, the two problems of image formation for a Multichannel Synthetic Aperture Radar (MSAR) and suppressing interferences while forming a good quality image have been addressed. For the first problem, three wavefront reconstruction algorithms were presneted based on the multichannel Matched Filter (MF) imagining equation which demonstrated differing levels of performance and accuracy. A fourth algorithm known as multichannel backprojection was also presented to provide comparative quality with a reduced computational load. To address the second problem, a detailed jammer model was described and tested with a multichannel imaging algorithm to demonstrate the effect of hot-clutter on a SAR image. Multi-channel imaging and optimal slow-time Space Time Adaptive Processing (STAP) were shown to only partially suppress the hot-clutter interference, while optimal fast-time STAP demonstrated a much greater performance." --p. 185 of source document. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2007.

OFDM is a promising technique for high-data-rate wireless communications because it can combat inter-symbol interference (ISI) caused by the dispersive fading of wireless channels. The proposed research focuses on techniques that improve the performance of OFDM-based wireless communications and its commercial and military applications. In particular, we address the following aspects of OFDM: inter-channel interference (ICI) suppression, interference suppression for clustered OFDM, clustered OFDM based anti-jamming modulation, channel estimation for MIMO-OFDM, MIMO transmission with limited feedback. For inter-channel interference suppression, a frequency domain partial response coding (PRC) scheme is proposed to mitigate ICI. We derive the near-optimal weights for PRC that is independent on the channel power spectrum. The error floor resulting from ICI can be reduced significantly using a two-tap or a three-tap PRC. Clustered OFDM is a new technique that has many advantages over traditional OFDM. In clustered OFDM systems, adaptive antenna arrays are used for interference suppression. To calculate weights for interference suppression, we propose a polynomial-based parameter estimator to combat the severe leakage of the DFT based estimator due to the small size of the cluster. An adaptive algorithm is developed to obtain optimal performance. For high data rate military communications, we propose a clustered OFDM base spread spectrum modulation to provide both anti-jamming and fading suppression capability. We analyze the performance of uncoded and coded system. Employing multiple transmit and receive antennas in OFDM systems (MIMO-OFDM) can increase the spectral efficiency and link reliability. We develop a minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) channel estimator that takes advantage of the spatial-frequency correlations in MIMO-OFDM systems to minimize the estimation error. We investigate the training sequence design and two optimal training sequence designs are given for arbitrary spatial correlations. For a MIMO system, the diversity and array gains can be obtained by exploiting channel information at the transmitter. For MIMO-OFDM systems, we propose a subspace tracking based approach that can exploit the frequency correlations of the OFDM system to reduce the feedback rate. The proposed approach does not need recalculate the precoding matrix and is robust to multiple data stream transmission.

Antenna is an indispensable part of a radar or free space communication system. Antenna requires different stringent specifications for different applications. Designed and fabricated for an intended application, antenna or antenna array has to be evaluated for its far-field characteristics in real free space environment which requires setting up of far-field test site. Maintenance of the site to keep the stray reflections levels low, the cost of the real estate are some of the disadvantages. Nearfield measurements are compact and can be used to test the antennas by exploiting the relationship between near-field and far-field. It is shown that the far-field patterns of an antenna can be sufficiently accurately predicted provided the near-field measurements are accurate. Due to limitation in the near-field measurement systems, errors creep in corrupting the nearfield-measured data thus making error in prediction of the far field. All these errors ultimately corrupt the phase and amplitude data. In this thesis, one such near-field measurement facility, the Planar Near Field Measurement facility is discussed. The limitations of the facility and the errors that occur due to their limitations are discussed. Various errors that occur in measurements ultimately corrupt the near-field phase and amplitude. Investigations carried out aim at a detailed study of these phase and amplitude errors and their effect on the far-field patterns of the antenna. Depending on the source of error, the errors are classified as spike, pulse and random errors. The location of occurrence of these types of errors in the measurement plane, their effects on the far-field of the antenna is studied both for phase and amplitude errors. The studies conducted for various phase and amplitude errors show that the near-field phase and amplitude data are more tolerant to random errors as the far-field patterns do not get affected even for low sidelobe cases. The spike errors, though occur as a wedge at a single point in the measurement plane, have more pronounced effect on the far-field patterns. Lower the taper value of the antenna, more pronounced is the error. It is also noticed that the far-field pattern gets affected only in the plane where the error has occurred and has no effect in the orthogonal plane. Pulse type of errors which occur even for a short length in the measurement affect both the principle plane far-field patterns. This study can be used extensively as a tool to determine to the level to which various error such as mechanical, RF etc need to be controlled to make useful and correct pattern predictions on a particular facility. Thereby, the study can be used as a tool to economise the budget of the facility wherein the parameters required for building the facility need not be over specified beyond the requirement. In general, though this is a limited study, it is certainly a trendsetter in this direction.

Under a number of practical operating scenarios, traditional moving target indicator (MTI) systems inadequately suppress ground clutter in airborne radar systems. Due to the moving platform, the clutter gains a nonzero relative velocity and spreads the power across Doppler frequencies. This obfuscates slow-moving targets of interest near the "direct current" component of the spectrum. In response, space-time adaptive processing (STAP) techniques have been developed that simultaneously operate in the space and time dimensions for effective clutter cancellation. STAP algorithms commonly operate under the assumption of homogeneous clutter, where the returns are described by complex, white Gaussian distributions. Empirical evidence shows that this assumption is invalid for many radar systems of interest, including high-resolution radar and radars operating at low grazing angles. We are interested in these heterogeneous cases, i.e., cases when the Gaussian model no longer suffices. Hence, the development of reliable STAP algorithms for real systems depends on the accuracy of the heterogeneous clutter models. The clutter of interest in this work includes heterogeneous texture clutter and point clutter. We have developed a cell-based clutter model (CCM) that provides simple, yet faithful means to simulate clutter scenarios for algorithm testing. The scene generated by the CMM can be tuned with two parameters, essentially describing the spikiness of the clutter scene. In one extreme, the texture resembles point clutter, generating strong returns from localized range-azimuth bins. On the other hand, our model can also simulate a flat, homogeneous environment. We prove the importance of model-based STAP techniques, namely knowledge-aided parametric covariance estimation (KAPE), in filtering a gamut of heterogeneous texture scenes. We demonstrate that the efficacy of KAPE does not diminish in the presence of typical spiky clutter. Computational complexities and susceptibility to modeling errors prohibit the use of KAPE in real systems. The computational complexity is a major concern, as the standard KAPE algorithm requires the inversion of an MNxMN matrix for each range bin, where M and N are the number of array elements and the number of pulses of the radar system, respectively. We developed a Gram Schmidt (GS) KAPE method that circumvents the need of a direct inversion and reduces the number of required power estimates. Another unavoidable concern is the performance degradations arising from uncalibrated array errors. This problem is exacerbated in KAPE, as it is a model-based technique; mismatched element amplitudes and phase errors amount to a modeling mismatch. We have developed the power-ridge aligning (PRA) calibration technique, a novel iterative gradient descent algorithm that outperforms current methods. We demonstrate the vast improvements attained using a combination of GS KAPE and PRA over the standard KAPE algorithm under various clutter scenarios in the presence of array errors.

Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Large close range environmental reflections or poor isolation between the transmit and receive paths of an FMCW radar can overload the receiver. The In phase and Quadrature phase (IQ) Reflected Power Canceller (RPC) provides a solution to the problem by cancelling any close range reflections. In this study a procedure to optimise the design of an RPC is developed and the performance limits of a practical RPC is investigated in depth. There are four focus areas in the evaluation and design of the IQ Reflected Power Canceller. First, an analysis was performed on a theoretical IQ Reflected Power Canceller, which provided insight into how the system functioned and made it possible to identify practical application issues that would arise during the design. The next focus area was the IQ Reflected Power Canceller’s dynamic range. Equations, based on the power and noise characteristics of each component in the canceller, were derived. From these equations, a system, with an optimised dynamic range, could be developed. Next, the IQ Reflected Power Canceller’s feedback loop stability was investigated. The canceller is an active negative feedback control system but, in order to obtain the negative feedback, the feedback signal has to be phase shifted by 180 degrees to the phase of the input signal. An analysis of the canceller’s RF phase contribution resulted in an equation that can be used to manage the nett RF phase in the feedback loop. The evaluation model of the IQ Reflected Power Canceller produced favourable results. The tests performed on the system included measuring the level of cancellation that can be achieved, whether the dynamic range corresponds to the predicted values and the amount of RF phase error that can be introduced in the feedback path while maintaining a stable system. The IQ Reflected Power Canceller was found to perform well in the evaluation. It provided a cancellation of more than 45 dB for close range reflections and the canceller remained stable across a wide range of RF centre frequencies (1 GHz). This means that the FMCW radar’s frequency modulation bandwidth will not be limited because of the IQ Reflected Power Canceller. The evaluation clearly showed that the modulator in the feedback loop is the critical element that determines the dynamic range of the radar with an RPC. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Onvoldoende isolasie tussen die sender en ontvanger van ’n Frekwensie Gemoduleerde Kontinu Golf radar, sowel as groot weerkaatsings vanaf voorwerpe in die omgewing van die radar, veroorsaak dat die ontvanger versadig. Hierdie beperking veroorsaak dat die radar ’n verminderde dinamiese bereik het, en daarmee ook dat die radar se maksimum teiken-afstand verminder word. Die IQ Gereflekteerde Drywingskanselleerder kan as ’n oplossing gebruik word teen hierdie ongewenste refleksies. Hierdie navorsing poog om ’n kanselleerder te evalueer met die eind doel gestel daarop om ’n praktiese stelsel aanmekaar te sit. Die kanselleerder word geëvalueer deur na vier fokus areas te kyk. Eerstens word ’n ideale model opgestel, wat ’n beter begrip van die kanselleerder bewerkstellig. Uit hierdie ideale model, is daar praktiese oorwegings wat die kanselleerder affekteer, geïdentifiseer. Ten einde die dinamiese bereik van die radar ontvanger te verbeter, word ’n metode afgelei wat gebruik word om die kanselleerder se dinamiese bereik te optimeer. Hierdie metode neem die maksimum drywingsbeperkinge van die komponente in die kanselleerder in ag. Die kanselleerder is ’n aktiewe terugvoer beheerstelsel, en aangesien ’n sommeerder in die terugvoer lus gebruik word, moet die fase deur die lus met 180 grade geskuif word om sodoende ’n kansellerende sein by die ontvangde sein te tel. Die RF fase foute in die kanselleerder word geanaliseer deur ’n nie-ideale model van die kanselleerder op te stel. Hierdie nie-ideale model maak dit moontlik om die effek van ’n RF fase fout op die kanselleerder se stabiliteit te ondersoek. ’n Praktiese kanselleerder is ontwerp uit die inligting wat versamel is gedurende die evaluasie, en ’n werkende stelsel is aanmekaar gesit. Met hierdie praktiese kanselleerder is die hoeveelheid drywing-onderdrukking wat bereik kan word, gemeet. Die dinamiese bereik van die kanselleerder is ook bepaal en vergelyk met die teoreties berekende waardes. Die aannames oor die effek van die RF fase fout in die kanselleerder, is bevestig deur metings te neem. Goeie resultate is met die kanselleerder behaal. ’n Kansellasie van meer as 45 dB is gemeet vir naby-geleë refleksies. Die kanselleerder het ook stabiel gebly oor ’n wye band van senter-frekwensies (1 GHz). Dus sal die Frekwensie Gemoduleerde Kontinu Golf radar se modulasie bandwydte nie beperk word as gevolg van die kanselleerder nie. Uit die evaluasie is daar gevind dat die modulator die kritieke element in the kanselleerder se terugvoer lus is, dus bepaal die modulator die dinamiese bereik van die radar met ’n kanselleerder.

This study presents a novel frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) radar system based on sub-harmonic generation, where a 24 GHz frequency divider-by-10 is used as an active reflector tag. A practical prototype is designed and fabricated on a GF45nm-Silicon on Insulator (SOI) technology for the 24 GHz building blocks, while a GF0.18 μm 7WL Bipolar Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (BiCMOS) technology was used for the 2.4 GHz receiver and baseband. System measurement results show that as opposed to conventional primary radars, the proposed system is immune to strong multi-path interferences resulting from direct reflections of the interrogating signal. The system achieves a ranging precision of 3.7 mm with loop measurements. Moreover, when measured in an indoor environment, the ranging results show a ranging precision and accuracy of 5.8 and 22.3 cm, respectively, which outperform other FMCW radars in the literature.