Document Type

Conference Paper

Journal/Book Title/Conference

SPIE Defense + Security 2015

Publisher

SPIE

Location

Baltimore, MD

Publication Date

5-21-2015

First Page

1

Last Page

11

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Abstract

The FlexSAR radar system was designed to be a high quality, low-cost, flexible prototype instrument. Many radar researchers and practitioners desire the ability to efficiently prototype novel configurations. The resulting cost and time required to modify existing radar systems is a challenging hurdle that can be prohibitive. The FlexSAR system couples an RF design that leverages connectorized components with digital commercial of the shelf (COTS) cards. This design allows for a scalable system that supports software defined radio (SDR) capabilities. This paper focuses on the RF and digital system design discussing the advantages and disadvantages. The FlexSAR system design objective was to support diverse configurations with minimal non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs. Multiple diverse applications are examined demonstrating the flexible system nature. The configurations discussed utilize different system parameters (e.g., number of phase-centers, system bandwidth, etc.). The resultant products are examined illustrating that high-quality data products are still attained.

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