Aerospace & Electronic Systems; Antenna & Propagation; and Microwave Theory & Techniques Societies
6:00 PM, Tuesday, 8 November
Multifunction Phased Array Radar for Air Traffic and Weather Surveillance
Jeffrey S. Herd, MIT Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA
A multifunction phased array radar (MPAR) system has been proposed as the next-generation solution to provide both weather and primary aircraft surveillance—a functionality that no current radar can satisfy. Instead of using a rotating antenna, as current civilian radar systems do, an MPAR has no moving parts and electronically shapes and steers its radar beam. This unique beam agility permits increased vertical resolution and faster full-volume scan rates, thus enabling one radar unit to perform multiple weather and atmospheric surveillance tasks. One clear advantage of the MPAR system is a potential reduction in the total number of ground-based radars. In addition, MPAR surveillance capabilities will exceed those of current operational radars, for example, by providing more frequent weather volume scans and by providing vertical resolution and height estimates for primary aircraft targets.Under FAA sponsorship, MIT Lincoln Laboratory and M/A-COM Technology Solutions have developed an active electronically scanning phased array antenna panel, which demonstrates the fundamental building block of an MPAR system. The phased array panels function together coherently to radiate and receive pulses of radar energy that can be used to detect, locate, and track both aircraft and weather targets. A preliminary assessment indicated that full system implementation could result in the deployment of approximately 350 radars. To effectively compete with current mechanically scanned solutions, the MPAR system must achieve an aggressive cost goal, while equaling or bettering current performance metrics. The MPAR panel helps achieve the ambitious cost targets by using highly integrated microwave components and commercial manufacturing practices. Furthermore, the electronically scanning MPAR array panels can accomplish diverse surveillance tasks much more quickly, and with more flexibility than can the mission-specific rotating antenna systems in use today.
The MIT Lincoln Laboratory program is addressing key technology challenges including low cost dual polarized active phased array panels, overlapped digital subarray architecture, and accurate performance and cost models for the radars. This presentation will describe the current status of these efforts, and describe future enhancements.
Jeffrey
S. Herd received the B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical
Engineering from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1982, 1983
and 1989, respectively. From 1983–1999, he was with the Antenna
Technology Branch of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Hanscom AFB,
MA. From 1992-1994, he was a visiting scientist with the Antenna Group
of the Institute for High Frequency Techniques, German Aerospace
Research Establishment (DLR), Munich, Germany. In 1999, he joined MIT
Lincoln Laboratory, Lexington, MA, where he is currently an Assistant
Group Leader in the Advanced RF Sensing and Exploitation Group. MIT
Lincoln Laboratory conducts research and development aimed at solutions
to problems critical to national security. The Advanced RF Sensing and
Exploitation Group is developing advanced RF technologies and adaptive
signal processing techniques for next generation RF surveillance
systems. Dr. Herd’s research interests include ultra-wideband arrays, RF
pre-conditioning networks, multifunction T/R modules, digital sub-array
architectures, and wideband digital receivers. *This work was sponsored by the FAA under Air Force Contract FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are not necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.
Meeting will be held at MIT Lincoln Laboratory A-Café, 244 Wood Street, Lexington, MA. For directions please see: http://www.ll.mit.edu/about/map.html
For more information, contact Aerospace & Electronic Systems chair, Eli Brookner eli_brookner@raytheon.com or Antennas & Propagation chair, Gregory Charvat at Gregory.charvat@ll.mit.edu
Ian Wood graduated from the University of Victoria with a MASc in Electrical Engineering. His research involved developing a compact, planar imaging array for use in radio astronomy. He worked as a student researcher at the Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, assisting in the production of 84-116 GHz receiver cartridges for the Atacama Large Millimeter Array Telescope. He currently works for CST of America where he provides advanced antenna simulation solutions for customers in a variety of application fields.
Marta Martínez-Vázquez was born in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in 1973. She obtained the Dipl.-Ing. in telecommunications and Ph.D. degree from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain, in 1997 and 2003, respectively. In 1999 she obtained a fellowship from the Pedro Barrié de la Maza Foundation for postgraduate research at IMST GmbH, in Germany. Since 2000, she is a full-time staff member of the Antennas and EM Modelling department of IMST. Her research interests include the design and applications of antennas for mobile communications, planar arrays and radar sensors, as well as Electromagnetic Bandgap (EBG) materials. Dr. Martínez-Vázquez was awarded the 2004 "Premio Extraordinario de Tesis Doctoral" (Best Ph.D. award) of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia for her dissertation on small multiband antennas for handheld terminals. She has been a member of the Executive Board of the ACE (Antennas Centre of Excellence) Network of Excellence (2004-2007) and the leader of its activity on small antennas. She is the vice-chair of the COST IC0306 Action “Antenna Sensors and Systems for Information Society Technologies”, and a member of the IEEE Antennas and Propagation Society and of the Technical Advisory Panel for the Antennas and Propagation Professional Network of IET. She is the author of over 50 papers in journals and conference proceedings. Dr. Martínez-Vázquez’s career is an example of the positive results of such coordination programs. She started as an expert participant in COST 260, became a Working Group leader in COST 284, and a member of the Executive Board of ACA, leading the “Small Antennas” activity. Presently, she is the Vice-chair of the COST IC0603 Action.
