ADVANCED RADAR AND ELECTRONIC WARFARE SYSTEMS

Transcription

1 Solving Tomorrow s Test Challenges PROVIDING A NEW LEVEL OF REALISM IN TESTING AND EVALUATION OF ADVANCED RADAR AND ELECTRONIC WARFARE SYSTEMS LIZ RUETSCH APPLICATIONS MARKETING & PLANNING MICROWAVE & COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION

2 Agenda Tomorrow s Challenge: What is changing in the environment? Problem: What is the impact on test requirements? Solution: Solving tomorrow's test challenges today 1 2 dense Overall spectrum is getting crowded (ex. cellular systems interfering with military) Battlefield is moving to dense urban environments, smaller, low mobility targets 3 4 Military is looking for slower moving targets Government is asking to build systems with increased complexity during a time when budgets are tight and global economic situation is uncertain 2

3 Challenge #1: Spectrum is Getting Crowded Tomorrow s Challenge: What is changing in the environment? 1 Overall spectrum is getting crowded (ex. cellular systems interfering with military) Problem: What is the impact on test requirements? Moving to higher frequencies (ie. X-Band to Ka/Ku-Band) Solution: Solving tomorrow's test challenges today PXA to 50 GHz/325 GHz Questions to be answered: Why is the spectrum getting crowded? What are the key signal characteristics? How will we solve this problem? 3

4 Why is the Spectrum Getting Crowded? 6000 Upper frequency (MHz) GSM/EDGE/EDGE EVO GSM/EDGE/EDGE EVO W-CDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ W-CDMA/HSPA/HSPA+ cdma2000/1xevdo cdma2000/1xevdo cdma2000/1xevdo TD-SCDMA TD-SCDMA TD-SCDMA LTE-FDD LTE-FDD LTE-FDD LTE-TDD LTE-TDD LTE-TDD LTE-Advanced LTE-Advanced LTE-Advanced a b g n n Bluetooth Bluetooth EDR DVB-H GPS Glonass LMR/LTE ac 4

5 What are the Key Signal Characteristics? Key signal characteristics Harmonics (2 nd, 5 th, 10 th ) Spurious response (at extremely low levels) Phase noise (close to carrier) Wider bandwidths New front end converter New band select switch w/pre-amp New pre-selector w/yig tuned filter Standard With LNP With NFE Unprecedented signal insight with the PXA signal analyzer Unmatched sensitivity to 50 GHz (DANL: 172 dbm at 2 GHz) 160 MHz of analysis bandwidth Highest third-order dynamic range (TOI) (+21 dbm at 2 GHz) Superior close-in phase noise performance ( 130 dbc/hz at 1 GHz (@10 khz offset) The industry s most accurate analyzer 5

6 Extend Unmatched Performance With External Mixing Better close-in phase noise performance than internallymixed 67 GHz analyzers! Extend to 325 GHz and beyond Supported measurements Spectrum analysis PowerSuite one-button automated power measurements N9068A phase noise measurement application Waveguide input Supported external mixers NEW family: M1970V and M1970W Series OML Inc. and other third-parties (VDI) USB connector LO/IF SMA connector 6

7 M1970V/W Waveguide Harmonic Mixers New mixer family M1970V (50 to 80 GHz) M1970W (75 to 110 GHz) Mixer smart features USB plug and play Auto-transfer of conversion loss data Auto LO power adjust to compensate for cable loss (better amplitude accuracy) Improved DANL and TOI Using higher LO frequency, better conversion loss (> 10 db better than 11970x) Excellent amplitude accuracy, ±2.2 db PXA and smart mixer combination shows -146 dbm sensitivity at 67 GHz 7

8 Challenge #2: Battlefield is Now Urban Tomorrow s Challenge: What is changing in the environment? Problem: What is the impact on test requirements? Solution: Solving tomorrow's test challenges today 2 Battlefield is moving to dense urban environments, smaller, low mobility targets Moving to wider bandwidths Moving to higher frequencies PXA: 160 MHz/900 Agilent EMEA MHz Press BW Event PXA to 50/325 GHz PSG: only 1GHz BW to 44GHz Questions to be answered: How are urban environments challenging for radar systems? What do we mean by wideband? Why do we need it? How is Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) being used? How will we solve this problem? 8

9 What Do We Mean By Wideband? How does one define a wideband signal? Wideband is a relative term In communications, wideband is used when message bandwidth >> channel s bandwidth In radar, wideband is used when the signal bandwidth >> 1/PW Defining wideband signal from a test and measurement point of view When the signal s information bandwidth is greater than typical resolution bandwidths offered in conventional signal analyzers Signals that require some form of channel compensation to ensure data or signal fidelity Generally, information bandwidth > 5 MHz Signal Type Carrier Frequency BW BW/Carrier Frequency AM radio signal 1.00E E Narrowband FM comms 1.50E E Stereo FM broadcast 1.00E E GSM 9.00E E W-CDMA 2.00E E Wi-FI 2.40E E Satellite Comms 5.60E E Microwave link (OC3) 6.00E E SAR Radar 1.00E E

10 How are SARs Being Used Today for Imaging? The German Aerospace Center (DLR), located in Oberpfaffenhofen-Wessling Germany, is developing both airborne and satellite-based Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems for ground mapping and environmental monitoring applications DLR F-SAR onboard DLR s Dornier DO aircraft High-resolution SAR image of a city center SOURCE: DLR Web Site 10

11 What are the Characteristics of this SAR? Parameter X-Band C-Band S-Band L-Band P-Band RF (GHz) BW (MHz) PRF (khz) P (kw) Rg Res. (m) Az Res. (m) Range cov Sampling Data rate 12.5 km (at maximum bandwidth) 8 bit real; 1 Gsa/500 Msa selectable 247 Mbytes/s per channel SOURCE: DLR Web Site 11

12 How Will We Measure These Wideband Signals? Agilent recently announced up to 900 MHz bandwidth for the PXA signal analyzer IF output Addresses increasing bandwidth requirements of next generation radar, electronic warfare, and communications systems The signal analyzer's IF output is digitized by an Agilent Infiniium oscilloscope running the Agilent VSA software The VSA software is then used to analyze complex radar or communications signals 12

13 What are the Characteristics We Care About? Analysis of a 900 MHz linear FM chirp by the VSA software with the PXA wideband IF output The SAR example shown here is with a carrier frequency at X-Band (10 GHz) Spectrum Power vs. time Phase vs. time Frequency vs. time 13

14 Challenge #3: Detecting Slower Moving Targets Tomorrow s Challenge: What is changing in the environment? Problem: What is the impact on test requirements? Solution: Solving tomorrow's test challenges today 3 Military is looking for slower moving targets Phase noise is a key system requirement PXA: phase noise (standard) PSG: phase noise (Option UNY) Agilent EMEA Press Event Questions to be answered: Why is low phase noise important? What is important in detecting new threats (ie. IED) How will we solve this problem? 14

15 Why is Low Phase Noise Important? Improved detection of slow-moving targets with Doppler Radar Radar systems detect target velocity by measuring Doppler shift in frequency Slow-moving targets exhibit very small frequency shift Return pulses are very low in amplitude & masked by clutter COHO Tx STALO DSP Rx Transmitter signal, f 0 Phase noise Clutter signal Reflection from target Water Mountains f 0 f 0 + f D 15

16 PSG: Setting the Bar Higher in Signal Generation Performance Lowest phase noise Maximize signal stability Superior level accuracy Minimize test uncertainty High output power Eliminate the need for an external amplifier Measurement Innovations First and only integrated vector signal generator with I/Q modulation to 44 GHz First analog signal generator to 67 GHz First to break the 1 Watt output power barrier E8257D PSG analog signal generator E8267D PSG vector signal generator Solutions: PSG now offers three levels of phase noise performance Standard, Option UNX, and new Option UNY Option UNY provides improved pedestal phase noise ~ 10dB khz offset than Option UNX Option UNY also has an improved reference oscillator ~ 5 db better close-in phase noise than Option UNX 16

17 PXA: Setting the Bar Higher in Signal Analysis Unprecedented signal insight Superior close-in phase noise performance: 130 dbc/hz at 1 GHz, 10 khz offset Unmatched sensitivity to 50 GHz: DANL = 172 dbm at 2 GHz Highest third-order dynamic range (TOI): +21 dbm at 2 GHz PXA s close-in phase noise performance for offsets < 300 Hz is over 20 db improved relative to PSA PXA s ultra close-in phase noise performance for 10 Hz offsets is over 23 db improved relative to PSA 17

18 Challenge #4: Complex Systems within Budget Tomorrow s Challenge: What is changing in the environment? Problem: What is the impact on test requirements? Solution: Solving tomorrow's test challenges today 4 Government is asking to build systems with increased complexity during a time when budgets are tight and global economic situation is uncertain COTS vs. custom systems Platform solutions that can be reused vs. program specific solutions Complex pulse generation and analysis in an economical Signal Studio for pulse building Pulse analysis software VSA software X-Series signal analyzers PSG signal generator Questions to be answered: Why simulate radar testing? What are the signal characteristics of interest? How will we solve this problem? 18

19 Why Simulate Radar Testing? Traditional method Turn on the actual radar or develop in-house/custom radar simulator But Cannot test until very late in the development process Expensive: full fly-by test can cost millions of Euros Real world challenges All radar systems depend on antennas to operate Pulse building can simulate real-world antenna behavior In practice, real signals are never perfect Solution Add selected impairments to test signal 19

20 N7620A Signal Studio for Pulse Building First introduced in 2003 Features Create pulse libraries Build pattern libraries Apply baseband pre-distortion Value Simplify single-emitter test pattern generation Eliminate complicated mathematics Set high-level pulse parameters 20

21 Advanced Features: Antenna Parameters Antenna properties Azimuth: 3 db beam width Elevation: 3 db beam width Null depth: 40 db Antenna radiation pattern Blackman, Hamming, Hanning, rectangular, 3 term, cosine 1-5, programmable Antenna scanning modes None, custom, circular, conical, bidirection al sector, unidirectional sector, bidirectional raster, unidirectional raster 21

22 Advanced Features: Pulse Timing Pattern Parameters Pulse repetition interval (PRI) patterns Constant (none) Gaussian jitter Uniform jitter Sinusoidal wobulation Saw tooth wobulation Triangle wobulation U shaped jitter Linear ramp Stepped Staggered Bursted Pulse width patterns Constant Gaussian jitter Uniform jitter Linear ramp Stepped N7620A Signal Studio Standard features Advanced features Option 205 PSG/ESG BBG Option 206 External AWG 22

23 N9051A Pulse Measurement Software Product overview Analyze up to 1000 continuous pulses Pulse analysis measurements Period, width, PRI/PRF, droop, overshoot, rise/fall time, average power, peak power, PDF, CDF, CCDF and more Supports X-Series analyzers, PSA spectrum analyzer, and Infiniium oscilloscopes Phase and frequency measurements Pulse to pulse change in phase Phase mean and standard deviation Chirp signal measurements Extended analysis and statistics Mean, max, min, standard deviation, RMS, trend and autocorrelation of data selected Plots and histograms of selected data 23

24 Summary Tomorrow s Challenge: What is changing in the environment? Problem: What is the impact on test requirements? Solution: Solving tomorrow's test challenges today 1 Overall spectrum is getting crowded (ex. cellular systems interfering with military) Moving to higher frequencies (ex. from X- Band to Ka/Ku Band) PXA to 50 GHz/325 GHz 2 Battlefield is moving to dense urban environments, smaller, low mobility targets Moving to wider bandwidths Moving to higher frequencies PXA: 160 MHz/900 MHz PSG: industry s only 1-GHz bandwidth to 44 GHz 3 Military is looking for slower moving targets Phase noise is a key system requirement PXA: phase noise (std) PSG: phase noise (UNY) 4 Government is asking to build systems with increased complexity during a time when budgets are tight and global economic situation is uncertain Platform solutions that can be reused vs. program specific solutions Complex pulse generation and analysis in an economical way Signal Studio for pulse building VSA software X-Series signal analyzers (PXA/MXA/EXA/CXA) PSG signal generators 24