UNIT-5

TRACKING RADARS & RADAR RECEIVERS

Tracking with Radar
The Radar, which is used to track the path of one or more targets is known as Tracking
Radar. In general, it performs the following functions before it starts the tracking activity.

• Target detection

• Range of the target

• Finding elevation and azimuth angles

• Finding Doppler frequency shift

So, Tracking Radar tracks the target by tracking one of the three parameters — range,
angle, Doppler frequency shift. Most of the Tracking Radars use the principle of tracking
in angle. Now, let us discuss what angular tracking is.

Angular Tracking
The pencil beams of Radar Antenna perform tracking in angle. The axis of Radar Antenna
is considered as the reference direction. If the direction of the target and reference
direction is not same, then there will be angular error, which is nothing but the difference
between the two directions.

If the angular error signal is applied to a servo control system, then it will move the axis of
the Radar Antenna towards the direction of target. Both the axis of Radar Antenna and
the direction of target will coincide when the angular error is zero. There exists a feedback
mechanism in the Tracking Radar, which works until the angular error becomes zero.

Following are the two techniques, which are used in angular tracking.

• Sequential Lobing

• Conical Scanning

Now, let us discuss about these two techniques one by one.

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Sequential Lobing
If the Antenna beams are switched between two patterns alternately for tracking the
target, then it is called sequential lobing. It is also called sequential switching and lobe
switching. This technique is used to find the angular error in one coordinate. It gives the
details of both magnitude and direction of angular error.

Following figure shows an example of sequential lobing in polar coordinates.

As shown in the figure, Antenna beams switch between Position 1 and Position 2
alternately. Angular error θ is indicated in the above figure. Sequential lobing gives the
position of the target with high accuracy. This is the main advantage of sequential lobing.

Conical Scanning
If the Antenna beam continuously rotates for tracking a target, then it is called conical
scanning. Conical scan modulation is used to find the position of the target. Following
figure shows an example of conical scanning.

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Squint angle is the angle between beam axis and rotation axis and it is shown in the above
figure. The echo signal obtained from the target gets modulated at a frequency equal to
the frequency at which the Antenna beam rotates.

The angle between the direction of the target and the rotation axis determines
the amplitude of the modulated signal. So, the conical scan modulation has to be
extracted from the echo signal and then it is to be applied to servo control system, which
moves the Antenna beam axis towards the direction of the target.

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Noise

Figure 1: Background noise at a PPI-scope

Noise is a random, usually unwanted, signal in a lot of applications:

• you can hear it in acoustic signals as an additional constant fizzle,

• you can see it as variation in brightness or color information in a picture or a video

sequence,
or (see in enlarged figure 1) as pointwise variation in brightness at the whole
display of the PPI-scope of radar, and

• you can measure the noise voltage (or noise floor) on an oscilloscope
or can see it as „green grass” at an A-scope in a Radar system.

Noise is most apparent in regions with low signal level, such as the weak received echo-
signal in radar receiver. Noise is characterized by its statistical properties. Noise that
contains all frequencies with equal amplitudes is called „white” noise. The „white” noise
contains equal power within a fixed bandwidth at any center frequency. „White noise”
draws its name from white light in which the power spectral density of the light is
distributed over the visible band. An other type of electronic noise is frequency

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dependent, with a 1/ƒ, or so-called „pink” spectrum. Noise occurs in almost all electronic
devices, and results from a variety of effects.

The sources of noise arise from inside and outside a circuit. Along with the signal power,
a noise power (interference power) is received by the radar antenna. The received noise
depends on the frequency ƒ and the receivers band width B. Antenna equivalent noise
temperature is often quoted noting that it is elevation angle dependent. This interference
power comes from extraterrestrial radiation sources (galactic or cosmic noise), mainly in
the Milky Way, absorption of electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere, and the noise
temperature of the Earth. Since this noise can't be seperate from the backscattered radar
signals, the received noise will be amplified like the radar signals in all stages of the radar
receiver, too.

Noise sources within the circuit produce an internal noise power, whose most frequent
causes are semiconductor noise and thermal noise of ohmic resistances or
conductance and the noise current of charge carrier currents. The thermal noise is based
on the irregular movement of the charge carriers in the resistance material, contributing
to the current flow. The temporal average value of this current is not zero, the square
temporal average value against it.

Figure 2: Noise at an open measuring cable of an oscilloscope

The noise of a system or network can be defined in three different but related ways:

• noise factor (Fn),

• noise figure (NF) and

• equivalent noise temperature (Te);

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these properties are definable as a simple ratio, decibel ratio or temperature,
respectively.

Noise Factor
The Noise Factor (Fn), of a device specifies how much additional noise the device will
contribute to the noise already from the source. The noise factor at a specified input
frequency, is defined as the ratio of

available output noise power

Fn =
available output noise due to source (1)
The noise factor is expressed as a dimensionless ratio.

Noise Figure
Noise figure (NF) is the Noise factor converted to Decibel (dB). It is a measure of
degradation of the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), caused by components in the RF signal
chain, for a given bandwidth. It is the increase in noise power of a device from the input
to the output that is greater that the signal gain. In effect, it is the amount of decrease of
the signal-to-noise ratio. Like gain, noise figure can be expressed either as a ratio or in
decibels. A noise figure of a modern receiver is in technical data sheets generally
expressed in decibels, with a typical value between 8 and 10 dB. We may also think of
noise figure as the factor by which a receiver degrades the signal-to-noise ratio of a signal
passing through it.

Noise Temperature
The noise in a system can also be expressed as an equivalent noise temperature Te. At a
pair of terminals, the temperature of a passive system having an available noise power
per unit bandwidth at a specified frequency equal to that of the actual terminals of a
network. Note: The noise temperature of a simple resistor is the actual temperature of
that resistor. The noise temperature of a diode may be many times the actual temperature
of the diode.

The noise in a receiving system can be of thermal origin (thermal noise) or can be from
other noise-generating processes. Most of these other processes generate noise whose
spectrum and probability distributions are similar to thermal noise. Because of these
similarities, the contributions of all noise sources can be lumped together and regarded
as thermal noise. The minimum signal level that can be detected is limited by the thermal
noise captured by the antennas facing a blackbody (which is at room temperature of 290K
= 17°C = 62°F) and noise generated within the sub-systems of the receiver.

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In two-way communication, if we are supposed to use the same Antenna for both
transmission and reception of the signals, then we require Duplexer. Duplexer is a
microwave switch, which connects the Antenna to the transmitter section for
transmission of the signal. Therefore, the Radar cannot receive the signal during
transmission time.

Similarly, it connects the Antenna to the receiver section for the reception of the signal.
The Radar cannot transmit the signal during reception time. In this way, Duplexer isolates
both transmitter and receiver sections.

Types of Duplexers
In this section, we will learn about the different types of duplexers. We can classify the
Duplexers into the following three types.

• Branch-type Duplexer

• Balanced Duplexer

• Circulator as Duplexer

In our subsequent sections, we will discuss the types of Duplexers in detail.

Branch-type Duplexer
Branch-type Duplexer consists of two switches — Transmit-Receive (TR) switch and Anti
Transmit-Receive (ATR) switch. The following figure shows the block diagram of Branch-
type Duplexer −

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As shown in the figure, the two switches, TR & ATR are placed at a distance of λ/4λ/4 from
the transmission line and both the switches are separated by a distance of λ/4λ/4.
The working of Branch-type Duplexer is mentioned below.

• During transmission, both TR & ATR will look like an open circuit from the
transmission line. Therefore, the Antenna will be connected to the transmitter
through transmission line.

• During reception, ATR will look like a short circuit across the transmission line.
Hence, Antenna will be connected to the receiver through transmission line.

The Branch-type Duplexer is suitable only for low cost Radars, since it is having less
power handling capability.

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Balanced Duplexer
We know that a two-hole Directional Coupler is a 4-port waveguide junction consisting
of a primary waveguide and a secondary waveguide. There are two small holes, which will
be common to those two waveguides.

The Balanced Duplexer consists of two TR tubes. The configuration of Balanced Duplexer
for transmission purpose is shown in the following figure.

The signal, which is produced by the transmitter has to reach the Antenna for the Antenna
to transmit that signal during transmission time. The solid lines with arrow
marks shown in the above figure represent how the signal reaches Antenna from
transmitter.

The dotted lines with arrow marks shown in the above figure represent the signal, which
is leaked from the Dual TR tubes; this will reach only the matched load. So, no signal has
been reached to the receiver.

The configuration of Balanced Duplexer for reception purpose is shown in figure given
below.

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We know that Antenna receives the signal during reception time. The signal which is
received by the Antenna has to reach the receiver. The solid lines with arrow
marks shown in the above figure represent how the signal is reaching the receiver from
Antenna. In this case, Dual TR tubes pass the signal from the first section of waveguide
to the next section of waveguide.

The Balanced Duplexer has high power handling capability and high bandwidth when
compared to Branch-type Duplexer.

Circulator as Duplexer
We know that the functionality of the circulator is that if we apply an input to a port, then
it will be produced at the port, which is adjacent to it in the clockwise direction. There is
no output at the remaining ports of the circulator.

So, consider a 4-port circulator and connect the transmitter, Antenna, receiver and
matched load to port1, port2, port3 and port4 respectively. Now, let us understand how
the 4-port circulator works as Duplexer.

The signal, which is produced by the transmitter has to reach the Antenna for the Antenna
will transmit that signal during transmission time. This purpose will be achieved when
the transmitter generates a signal at port1.

The signal, which is received by the Antenna has to reach the receiver
during reception time. This purpose will be achieved when the Antenna present at port2
receives an external signal.

The following figure shows the block diagram of circulator as Duplexer −

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The above figure consists of a 4-port circulator — Transmitter, Antenna and the matched
load is connected to port1, port2 and port4 of circulator respectively as discussed in the
beginning of the section.

The receiver is not directly connected to port3. Instead, the blocks corresponding to the
passive TR limiter are placed between port3 of circulator and receiver. The blocks, TR
tube & Diode limiter are the blocks corresponding to passive TR limiter.

Actually, the circulator itself acts as Duplexer. It does not require any additional blocks.
However, it will not give any kind of protection to the receiver. Hence, the blocks
corresponding to passive TR limiter are used in order to provide the protection to the
receiver.

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