Today’s robust defence strategies rely heavily on sophisticated radar technology. Radars play a crucial role in safeguarding airspace, effectively detecting and targeting aerial targets, from incoming missiles to low-flying drones (and even the occasional unidentified object). As airspace management grows more complex and new threats emerge, defence radar system designs must be designed with the most advanced component sets available.
Deconstructing the Essentials of Defence Radar Systems
Based on radio fundamentals, radar technology uses radio waves and analyses the reflected signals to determine the presence, location, and other characteristics of objects in the surrounding environment. Advanced signal processing techniques are then employed to extract meaningful data from the reflected radio waves.
Under the umbrella of radar systems, there are various types – each designed for specific applications. For instance, 3D radars provide a complete picture of an object’s location in a three-dimensional space (including altitude). Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars use controlled antenna arrays to steer radar beams rapidly and accurately. Passive Coherent Location (PCL) radars exploit existing radio signals from sources like FM radio stations to detect and track targets.
Radar System Design Considerations
According to Fortune Business Insights, the global military radar market size stands at $46.07 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach a staggering $211.12 billion by 2032. Opportunity is abundant for developers seeking to design next-level radar solutions.
Software and algorithms play an ever-increasing role in modern radar systems. They are responsible for tasks such as signal processing, target identification, and track management. Advanced algorithms can help to filter out clutter (unwanted signals) and improve the accuracy of target detection. However, there is a wide range of advanced technologies available to help developers accelerate their radar design time to market.
Design
The design phase is crucial for laying the foundation of a radar system. It involves selecting the appropriate technologies and architectures that meet the system's requirements.
Cadence AWR Design Environment Platform
The Cadence AWR Design Environment platform is a comprehensive suite of tools for RF/microwave design, making it particularly useful for radar applications due to the following features:
Integrated Design and Simulation: The platform offers integrated high-frequency circuit, system, and electromagnetic (EM) simulation technologies. This integration facilitates a comprehensive approach to radar development and verification.
Accurate Modeling: It accurately represents signal generation, transmission, phased arrays, T/R switching, clutter, noise, jamming, and signal processing. This precision enables users to address the design challenges and analysis requirements of modern radar systems.
Optimisation Capabilities: The platform supports the configuration and optimisation of antenna elements into an array for multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) and beam steering applications.
Hardware Integration: It allows for the conversion of system specifications into integrated hardware using custom-designed or commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts.
Co-Simulation Support: As the desired simulated radar performance is achieved, the platform supports co-simulation with circuit and antenna electromagnetic (EM) analysis, facilitating the transition from conceptual design to physical realisation.
Design and Prototype
The design phase is crucial for laying the foundation of a radar system. It involves selecting the appropriate technologies and architectures that meet the system's requirements.
Intel Agilex™ 9 SoC FPGA Solutions
Intel’s Altera® Agilex™ 9 SoC FOGA solutions are part of their Direct RF-Series and offer significant advantages for defense radar designs. Traditional radar systems require complex frequency translation stages to convert RF antenna signals to lower intermediate frequencies (IF) for digitization. The Agilex 9 series, on the other hand, are optimized edge solutions that eliminate this translation by directly handling high-frequency, wideband RF signals. This simplifies system architecture, reduces, size, weight, power (SWaP), and cost while improving channel synchronization and reliability.
Additionally, Agilex 9 solutions feature include:
High-performance wideband frequency agility: Multi-channel converters with 36 GHz RF bandwidth and 32 GHz instantaneous bandwidth enable quick retuning of receivers and transmitters, allowing simultaneous wideband and narrowband tracking.
Low latency and power consumption: The Embedded Multi-die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) and Advanced Interconnect Bus (AIB) technology integrate RF-capable ADCs and DACs with Agilex™ 9 FPGA, providing low latency and efficient power usage for analog-to-digital conversions.
Reduced total cost of ownership and risk: By integrating digital solutions and minimising the need for external analog circuitry, these devices reduce system size, cost, and complexity, while enhancing reliability and lowering time to market with integrated RF tools in Quartus® Prime Software.
Testing
Testing is another critical aspect of radar systems, especially as they become more complex and require advanced processing capabilities.
Constelli’s Radar Echo Simulator
Constelli’s Radar Echo Simulator is a sophisticated radar test solution developed on the NI PXI Platform. It supports the simulation of target echoes for agile monopulse detection and tracking radars. It’s a feature-rich end-to-end radar system test that features:
Multi-channel HWIL Real-time Simulation: This feature allows the simulator to mimic real-world radar signals, providing a more accurate and comprehensive testing environment.
Support for All Radar Waveforms: This ensures the simulator can be used with a wide variety of radar systems.
Range, Doppler & RCS: The simulator can mimic different target characteristics such as range, Doppler, and Radar Cross Section (RCS), providing a comprehensive testing scenario.
Jamming & ECM: The simulator can also mimic electronic countermeasures (ECM) and jamming scenarios, which are crucial for testing the robustness of radar systems.
Additionally, Constelli’s radar, testbench, and phased array library module offers comprehensive radar signal generation, modeling, and processing capabilities for various applications. Their phased array antenna generation wizard also enables designers to configure and analyze antenna arrays, including performance factors like mutual coupling and element failures, with real-time visualization.
NI's Radar System Test
NI’s Radar System Test provides a modular and scalable platform for testing radar systems. It helps engineers find errors earlier in the design cycle, reducing costs and increasing confidence in system performance. Here are some key features and their benefits:
End-to-End Radar System Test:
This approach provides a common configuration for parametric test to full system-level validation.
Radar Target Generation: The NI Radar Target Generation Software provides additional functionality for the PXIe Vector Signal Transceiver for radar system-level test.
FPGA-Based FlexRIO Modules: These modules allow for closed-loop, low-latency scenario simulation with real-time signal processing.
PXI Systems: These systems provide the flexibility to interface with radar at multiple test points: high-speed digital, direct-inject IF, and/or over-the-air RF.
Designing for the Future of Radar
The future of defence radar technology is brimming with exciting possibilities. Artificial intelligence (AI) is poised to play a transformative role, enabling radars to make faster and more accurate decisions in complex scenarios. Quantum radar technology has the potential to revolutionise target detection and tracking, offering unprecedented sensitivity and accuracy.
Braemac stands at the forefront of providing engineers with the essential components and expertise needed to design next-generation radar systems. Whether you're in the design phase, prototyping/testing, or computing stage, Braemac offers a comprehensive range of solutions to meet your needs.
From the robust capabilities of the Cadence AWR Design Environment for accurate modelling and optimisation to the advanced testing solutions like Constelli’s Radar Echo Simulator and NI’s Radar System Test, Braemac equips you with the tools to innovate and excel. The integration of Agilex™ 9 SoC FPGA Solutions ensures your systems are ready to handle the complexities of modern radar technology, offering high-performance computing with reduced size, weight, and power requirements.
Braemac is your key partner in navigating the evolving landscape of radar technology.
To start leveraging these cutting-edge components and solutions,
contact info@braemac.com today.