History

 Radar was invented for military purpose before world war II in order to secretly detect the
presence of unknown objects.

 Initially, the transmitting tubes were not that much powerful thus worked at a very low
frequency of about 60 MHz.

 But further development in the field and use of magnetrons has extended the frequency
range to a higher level.

 According to the operation performed by the radar, it is very important to have a system
that can accurately detect the presence of the target. So for this purpose, narrow beam
antennas with short-wavelength are used that correspond to upper UHF and microwave
frequencies.

 Thus the US army developed microwave radar system and such a system can determine the
position of the object to within 0.1° and 25 meters.

Introduction of Radar

 Radar is an acronym for “Radio Detection And Ranging”. 

 The term Radio refers to the use of electromagnetic waves with wavelength in the so-called
radio waves of the spectrum, which covers a wide range from 104 km to 1 cm.

 Radar is a system used to detect, determine the distance and map the objects such as
aircraft and rain.

 Radar uses the strong radio waves for transmitting and receiver listens for reflected echoes. 

 By analyzing the reflected signal, the reflector(object) can be located and identified. 

 Radar can operate in the darkness, haze, fog, rain and snow. It has ability to measure
distance with high accuracy in all weather condition.

 The full form of RADAR is RAdio Detection And Ranging. Detection refers to whether the

target is present or not. The target can be stationary or movable, i.e., non-stationary.
Ranging refers to the distance between the Radar and the target.

 Radars can be used for various applications on ground, on sea and in space.
The applications of Radars are listed below.

 Controlling the Air Traffic

 Ship safety
 Sensing the remote places
 Military applications

 In any application of Radar, the basic principle remains the same.

Working Principle of Radar

 The electronics principle on which Radar operates is very similar to the principle of sound
wave reflection.
 If you shout in the direction of a sound reflecting objects, you will hear an echo. So if you
know the speed of sound in the air, then estimate the distance and general direction of
object. 

 Same way, Radar uses the electromagnetic energy pulses. The radio frequency energy is
transmitted to and reflects form the reflecting object.

 A small portion of the energy is reflected and returns to the Radar system. This returned
energy is called an ECHO. 

 Radar system use the echo to determine the direction and distance of the reflecting object.
  Radar mainly consists of a transmitter and a receiver. It uses the same Antenna for both
transmitting and receiving the signals. The function of the transmitter is to transmit the
Radar signal in the direction of the target present.

 Target reflects this received signal in various directions. The signal, which is reflected back
towards the Antenna gets received by the receiver.

How the reception of an echo can determine the range and location of the target?

 Range specifies the distance between the target and the radar system. The range to an
object is determined by the measurement of the time taken by the radiated signal to reach
the object and come back to the radar.

 The location of the stationary object in the space is determined from the angle pointed by
the antenna when the echo received is of maximum amplitude.

 For a moving object because of the Doppler effect, there exists a shift in the frequency of the
re-radiated signal. And the frequency shift shows proportionality with the radial velocity of
the object.

Terminology of Radar Systems

 Range

 Pulse Repetition Frequency

 Maximum Unambiguous Range

 Minimum Range
Range: The distance between Radar and target is called Range of the target or simply range, R. We
know that Radar transmits a signal to the target and accordingly the target sends an echo signal to
the Radar with the speed of light, C.

Let the time taken for the signal to travel from Radar to target and back to Radar be ‘T’. The
two way distance between the Radar and target will be 2R, since the distance between the Radar
and the target is R.

 Pulse Repetition Frequency

Radar signals should be transmitted at every clock pulse. The duration between the two
clock pulses should be properly chosen in such a way that the echo signal corresponding to present
clock pulse should be received before the next clock pulse. A typical Radar wave form is shown in
the following figure.

As shown in the figure, Radar transmits a periodic signal. It is having a series of narrow rectangular
shaped pulses. The time interval between the successive clock pulses is called pulse repetition time
Tp.

Pulse repetition frequency, fp=1/Tp

 Therefore, pulse repetition frequency is nothing but the frequency at which Radar transmits
the signal.

Pulse Transmission
 Pulse Width (PW)
– Length or duration of a given pulse

 Pulse Repetition Frequency (PRF)

– Frequency at which consecutive pulse are transmitted

 Pulse Repetition Time (PRT=1/PRF)

– Time from beginning of one pulse to the next
– Inverse of PRF

 PW determines radar’s
– Minimum detection range
– Maximum detection range

 PRF determines radar’s

-- Maximum detection range

Terminology of Radar Systems

 Maximum Unambiguous Range
 Radar signals should be transmitted at every clock pulse. If we select a shorter
duration between the two clock pulses, then the echo signal corresponding to
present clock pulse will be received after the next clock pulse. Due to this, the range
of the target seems to be smaller than the actual range.
 So, we have to select the duration between the two clock pulses in such a way that
the echo signal corresponding to present clock pulse will be received before the next
clock pulse starts. Then, we will get the true range of the target and it is also called
maximum unambiguous range of the target or simply, maximum unambiguous range.
Substitute, R=Run  and T=Tp in Equation 1
Run=CTp/2 Equation 3
From Equation 2, we will get the pulse repetition time, Tp as the reciprocal of pulse
repetition frequency, fP. Mathematically, it can be represented as
Tp=1/fp Equation 4
Substitute, Equation 4 in Equation 3.
Run=C(1/fp)/2
Run=C/2fp Equation 5

 We can use either Equation 3 or Equation 5 for calculating maximum unambiguous

range of the target.

 We will get the value of maximum unambiguous range of the target, Run by

substituting the values of C and TP in Equation 3.

 Similarly, we will get the value of maximum unambiguous range of the target, Run by
substituting the values of C and fp in Equation 5.

 Minimum Range
We will get the minimum range of the target, when we consider the time
required for the echo signal to receive at Radar after the signal being transmitted
from the Radar as pulse width. It is also called the shortest range of the target.
Substitute, R=Rmin and T=τ in Equation 1
Rmin=Cτ/2 Equation 6
We will get the value of minimum range of the target, Rmin by substituting
the values of C and τ in Equation 6.

Classification of radar systems

 Two Basic Radar Types

Pulse Radar
 The Radar, which operates with pulse signal is called the Pulse Radar. Pulse Radars
can be classified into the following two types based on the type of the target it
detects.

 Basic Pulse Radar

 Moving Target Indication Radar

Basic Pulse Radar

 The Radar, which operates with pulse signal for detecting stationary targets, is called
the Basic Pulse Radar or simply, Pulse Radar.

 It uses single Antenna for both transmitting and receiving signals with the help of
Duplexer.

 Antenna will transmit a pulse signal at every clock pulse. The duration between the
two clock pulses should be chosen in such a way that the echo signal corresponding
to the present clock pulse should be received before the next clock pulse.

Moving Target Indication Radar

 The Radar, which operates with pulse signal for detecting non-stationary targets, is
called Moving Target Indication Radar or simply, MTI Radar.

 It uses single Antenna for both transmission and reception of signals with the help of
Duplexer.
 MTI Radar uses the principle of Doppler effect for distinguishing the non-stationary
targets from stationary objects.

Continuous Wave Radar

 The Radar, which operates with continuous signal or wave is called Continuous Wave
Radar. They use Doppler Effect for detecting non-stationary targets. Continuous Wave
Radars can be classified into the following two types.

 Unmodulated Continuous Wave Radar

 Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave Radar

Unmodulated Continuous Wave Radar

 The Radar, which operates with continuous signal (wave) for detecting non-stationary
targets is called Unmodulated Continuous Wave Radar or simply, CW Radar. It is also
called CW Doppler Radar.

 This Radar requires two Antennas. Of these two antennas, one Antenna is used for
transmitting the signal and the other Antenna is used for receiving the signal.

 It measures only the speed of the target but not the distance of the target from the
Radar

Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave

Radar
 If CW Doppler Radar uses the Frequency Modulation, then that Radar is called the
Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) Radar or FMCW Doppler Radar. It is
also called Continuous Wave Frequency Modulated Radar or CWFM Radar.

 This Radar requires two Antennas. Among which, one Antenna is used for
transmitting the signal and the other Antenna is used for receiving the signal. It
measures not only the speed of the target but also the distance of the target from
the Radar.

Basically, there exist two major radar systems:

Monostatic Radar System: A monostatic radar system uses a single antenna for
transmission as well as reception purpose.
Bistatic Radar System: A bistatic radar system utilizes independent antennas for
transmission and reception of the signal.

Applications of Radar
 Radar systems find its applications in a wide variety of fields like military, air traffic
control, in weather forecasting, remote sensing, astronomy, mapping etc.

 Military: It is the major application of radar and is one of the most important parts of
the air defence system. Radar is used for the purpose of navigation and surveillance
in the military for secure operations.

 Air traffic controlling: Radar is used to control the air traffic in the air routes and
airports. High-resolution radars are used for analyzing the aircraft and ground
vehicular traffic at the airports.
 Ship safety: Radars are used to provide safety measures to the ships in bad visibility
conditions by giving alerts about the existence of other ships in the route.

 Remote sensing: Radar is a remote sensor by nature as they can sense the
geophysical objects. And these are used forecasting of weather conditions along with
agricultural conditions and environmental pollution.

Block Diagram of Radar System