UNIT 2

CW AND FREQUENCY
MODULATED RADAR

Mrs.D.Rajitha
Asso.Prof
ECE, CEC
CW & FMCW RADAR 1
Contents
1. Doppler Effect
2. Simple CW radar
3. Isolation between transmitter and receiver
4. Intermediate-frequency receiver
5. Sideband super heterodyne Receiver
6. Receiver bandwidth requirements
7. FM-CW RADAR
8. FM-CW Altimeter
9. Multiple-frequency CW Radar

CW & FMCW RADAR 2

Doppler Effect
• A technique for separating the received signal from the transmitted signal when
there is relative motion between radar and target is based on recognizing the
change in the echo-signal frequency caused by the Doppler effect.
• It is well known in the fields of optics and acoustics that if either the source of
oscillation or the observer of the oscillation is in motion, an apparent shift in
frequency will result. This is the Doppler effect and is the basis of CW radar.

CW & FMCW RADAR 3

Doppler Effect
1. If R is the distance from the radar to target, the total number of wavelengths λ
contained in the two-way path between the radar and the target are 2R/λ.
2. One wavelength corresponds to an phase angle excursion of 2πradians.
3. The total phase angle excursion Ø made by the electromagnetic wave during its
transit to and from the target is 2П X 2R/λ = 4πR/λ radians.
4. If the target is in motion: R and the phase Ø are continually changing.
5. A change in Ø with respect to time is equal to frequency. This is the Doppler
angular frequency ωd and is given by:
ωd = 2πfd = dØ/dt
= d(4πR/λ) /dt
= (4π/λ) .dR/dt
= (4π/λ). Vr
= 4π.Vr/ λ
Hence fd = 2.Vr/ λ
fd is the Doppler frequency shiftRADAR
CW & FMCW in Hz 4
Simple CW radar

CW & FMCW RADAR 5

Isolation between transmitter and receiver

Isolation between transmitter and receiver is an important aspect to be

addressed in simple CW radars where a single antenna serves the purpose of both
transmission and reception.
In practice, it is not possible to eliminate completely the transmitter leakage.

However, transmitter leakage is neither always undesirable. A moderate amount of leakage entering the receiver
along with the echo signal supplies the reference necessary for the detection of the Doppler frequency shift. If a
leakage signal of sufficient magnitude were not present, a sample of the transmitted signal has to be deliberately
introduced into the receiver to provide the necessary reference frequency.

There are two practical effects which limit the amount of transmitter leakage
power which can be tolerated at the receiver. These are:

1. The maximum amount of power the receiver input circuitry can with stand before it
is physically damaged or its sensitivity reduced (burnout)

2. The amount of transmitter noise due to hum, microphonics, stray pick-up &
instability which enters the receiver from the transmitter and affects the receiver
CW & FMCW RADAR 6
Isolation Possibilities

1. Duplexer:
Turning off the receiver during transmission with a duplexer is not possible in a
CW radar since the transmitter is operated continuously.

2. Hybrid junctions :
hybrid junctions such as the magic-T, rat race, or short-slot coupler is of the order
of 20 to 30 dB. In some instances, when extreme precision is exercised, an
isolation of perhaps 60 dB or more might be achieved. But one limitation of the
hybrid junction is the 6-dB loss in overall performance which results from the
inherent waste of half the transmitted power and half the received signal power.

3. Circulator:
Practical devices have isolation of the order of 20 to 50 dB. Turnstile junctions
achieve isolations as high as 40 to 60dB.

4. Orthogonal polarizations :
The use of orthogonal polarizations for transmitting and receiving is limited to
short range radars because of the
CWrelatively
& FMCW RADARsmall amount of isolation that can
7 be
Limitation of the use of isolation devices

It is the reflections produced in the transmission line by

the antenna.
The reflection coefficient from a mismatched antenna with
a voltage standing-wave ratio ς is

|ρ|=(ς-1/(ς+1)

Therefore,
if an isolation of 20dB is to be obtained, the VSWR must be
less than 1.22.
If 40 dB of isolation is required, the VSWR must be less
than1.02. CW & FMCW RADAR 8
Solution
1. The largest isolations are obtained with two antennas: one for
transmission, the other for reception-physically separated from one
another.

2. Isolations of the order of 80 dB or more are possible with high-gain

antennas.

3. The more directive the antenna beam and the greater the spacing
between antennas, the greater will be the isolation.

4. A common radome enclosing the two antennas should be avoided

since it limits the amount of isolation that can be achieved.

CW & FMCW RADAR 9

Zero IF (Intermediate-frequency) Receiver

 The receiver in the simple CW radar shown earlier is in some

respects analogous to a super heterodyne receiver.
 Receivers of this type are called homodyne receivers, or super
heterodyne receivers with zero IF.
 The function of the local oscillator is replaced by the leakage
signal from the transmitter.
 Such a receiver is simpler than the one with a more conventional
intermediate frequency since no IF amplifier or local oscillator is
required.
CW & FMCW RADAR 10
Limitation of Zero IF receiver
 This simpler receiver is not very sensitive because of increased noise at the lower
intermediate frequencies caused by flicker effect.
 Flicker-effect noise occurs in semiconductor devices such as diode detectors and
cathodes of vacuum tubes.
 The noise power produced by the flicker effect varies as

1/fα
where α is approximately unity.
 This is in contrast to shot noise or thermal noise, which is independent of frequency.

 Thus, at the lower range of frequencies (audio or video region), where the Doppler
frequencies usually are found, the detector of the CW receiver can introduce a
considerable amount of flicker noise, resulting in reduced receiver sensitivity.
CW & FMCW RADAR 11
Limitation of Zero IF receiver

• Tolerable Condition • Intolerable Condition

 For short-range, low-power, For maximum efficiency with

applications CW radar, the reduction in
 since it can be compensated sensitivity caused by the simple
by a modest increase in Doppler receiver with zero IF
antenna aperture and/or cannot be tolerated.
additional transmitter power.

CW & FMCW RADAR 12

Non zero IF Receiver: The effects of flicker noise are overcome in the normal super
heterodyne receiver by using an intermediate frequency high enough to make the
flicker noise small compared with the normal receiver noise.

Block diagram of a CW Doppler radar with nonzero IF receiver, also called sideband super
heterodyne Receiver.
CW & FMCW RADAR 13
Receiver Bandwidth Requirements

One of the requirements of the Doppler-frequency amplifier in the simple

CW radar (Zero IF) or the IF amplifier of the sideband super heterodyne (Non
Zero IF) is that it has to be wide enough to pass the expected range of Doppler
frequencies.

Figure: Frequency spectrum of CW oscillation of (a) infinite duration and ( b ) finite duration

CW & FMCW RADAR 14

Causes for Spectrum broadening
1. Spread due to finite time on target: The time on target (duration of the received
signal) is δ = θB/θS sec. Thus, the signal is of finite duration and the bandwidth of
the receiver must be of the order of the reciprocal of the time on target (θ’S /θB).

2. The spectrum gets widened due to target cross section fluctuations. The
fluctuations widen the spectrum by modulating the echo signal.

3. The rotating blades of a helicopter and the compressor stages of a jet engine can
also result in a modulation of the echo and a widening of the spectrum that can
degrade the performance of a CW Doppler radar.

4. If the target's relative velocity is not constant, a further widening of the received
signal spectrum occurs. If aris the acceleration of the target with respect to the radar,
the signal will occupy a bandwidth

15
IF Doppler filter bank

CW & FMCW RADAR 16

Applications of CW radar

1. Measurement of the relative velocity of a moving target, as in the police

speed monitor or in the rate-of-climb meter for vertical-take-off
aircraft.

2. Control of traffic lights, regulation of tollbooths, vehicle counting. As a

sensor in antilock braking systems, and for collision avoidance.

3. In railways, as a speedometer to replace the conventional axle-driven

tachometer. In such an application it would be unaffected by errors
caused by wheel slip on accelerating or wheel slide when braking.

4. Monitoring the docking speed of large ships.

5. Measurement of the velocity of missiles, ammunition, and baseballs.

CW & FMCW RADAR 17
Advantages and Disadvantages of CW Radars

1. The principal advantage of CW Doppler radar over the other (non radar)
methods of measuring speed is that there need not be any physical
contact with the object whose speed is being measured. In industry this is
used to measure turbine-blade vibration, the peripheral speed of grinding
wheels, and the monitoring of vibrations in the cables of suspension
bridges.

2. The difficulty of eliminating the leakage of the transmitter signals into

the receiver has limited the utility of unmodulated CW radar for many
long-range applications.

3. Major disadvantage of the simple CW radar is its inability to obtain a

measurement of range. This limitation can be overcome by modulating
the CW carrier, as in the frequency-modulated radar.
CW & FMCW RADAR 18
FM-CW RADAR
1. The inability of the simple CW radar to measure range is mainly due to the lack
of a Timing mark. The timing mark permits the time of transmission and the
time of return to be recognized but it increases the spectrum of the transmitted
waveform.
2. The spectrum of a CW transmission can be broadened by the application of a
modulation - amplitude, frequency, or phase.

A widely used technique to insert a timing mark is to frequency- modulate the

carrier. The timing mark is the changing frequency.
The transit time is proportional to the difference in frequency between the
transmitter signal and the echo signal.
The greater the transmitter frequency deviation in a given time interval, the
more accurate is the measurement of the transit time but the transmitted
spectrum also becomes larger.

CW & FMCW RADAR 19

Range and Doppler measurement:

• In the frequency-modulated CW radar (abbreviated FM-CW), the transmitter

frequency is changed as a function of time in a known manner

CW & FMCW RADAR 20

If a frequency change of Δfis modulated at a rate fm , then the beat
frequency is

fr = (2R/c).2fm.Δf = 4Rfm.Δf /c
Or R = c fr/4fm.Δf

Thus the measurement of the beat frequency determines the range R.

CW & FMCW RADAR 21

Block diagram of FM-CW radar

CW & FMCW RADAR 22

If for example, the target is approaching the radar, the beat frequency fb(up) produced during
the increasing or up portion of the FM cycle will be the difference between the beat frequency
due to the range fr and the Doppler frequency shift fd .Similarly, on the decreasing portion, the
beat frequency fb (down) is the sum of the two.

CW & FMCW RADAR 23

 FM-CW Altimeter

CW & FMCW RADAR 24

CW Radar
Although CW radar cannot measure range, it is possible to do so by
measuring the phase of the echo signal relative to the phase of the transmitted signal.
Consider a CW radar radiating a single-frequency sine wave of the form
sin(2πfot)
The signal travels to the target at a range R and returns to the radar after a time
T = 2R/c
The echo signal received at the radar is
sin [2πfo(t –T)]
If the transmitted and received signals are compared in a phase detector, the output is
proportional to the phase difference between the two and is given by:
Δφ = 2πf0T
=4πfoRlc.
The phase difference may therefore be used as a measure of the range, or

CW & FMCW RADAR 25

Drawback
• The phase difference may therefore be used as a
measure of the range, orof the phase difference Δφ is
unambiguous only if Δφ does not exceed 2π radians.
• If Δφ= 2π then the maximum unambiguous range as
R =λ/2.
• At radar frequencies this unambiguous range is much
too small to be of any practical interest.

CW & FMCW RADAR 26

Multiple-frequency CW Radar
Solution:
Unambiguous range may be extended considerably by utilizing two separate
CW signals differing slightly in frequency.

The transmitted waveform is assumed to consist of two continuous sine waves of

frequency f1 and f2 separated by an amount Δf.

where Ø1 and Ø2 are arbitrary (constant) phase angles.

The echo signal is shifted in frequency by the Doppler Effect. The form of the
Doppler-shifted signals corresponding to the two frequencies f1 and f2 are:

CW & FMCW RADAR 27

Multiple-frequency CW Radar

Since the two RF frequencies f1and f2are approximately the same

f2=f1+ Δf, where Δf<<f 1
the Doppler frequency shifts fd1and fd2 can be assumed to be equal to each other.
fd1= fd2= fd
The receiver separates the two components of the echo signal and heterodynes each
received signal component with the corresponding transmitted waveform and extracts
the two Doppler-frequency components given below:

The phase difference between these two components is

CW & FMCW RADAR 28

A large difference in frequency between the two transmitted signals improves the
accuracy of the range measurement
since large Δf means a proportionately large change in ΔØ for a given range.
However, there is a limit to the value of Δf
since ΔØ cannot be greater than 2π radians if the range is to remain
unambiguous.
The maximum unambiguous range Runamb is

Therefore Δf must be less than c/2Runamb

CW & FMCW RADAR 29

Drawback
• The two-frequency CW radar is essentially a single-target radar since only one phase
difference can be measured at a time. If more than one target is present, the echo
signal becomes complicated and the meaning of the phase measurement becomes
doubtful.
• However if the frequency difference Δf increases unambiguous Range decreases. The
selection of Δf represents a compromise between the requirements of accuracy and
ambiguity.
• Both accurate and unambiguous range measurements can be made by transmitting
three or more frequencies instead of just two.
• For example, if the three frequencies f1,f2 and f3are such that f3 – f1 = k( f2–f1) where
k is a factor of the order of 10 or 20, the pair of frequencies f3, f1(with greater
Δf)gives an ambiguous but accurate range measurement while the pair of frequencies
f2, f1(with lesser Δf) resolve the ambiguities in the measurement of Range.
• Likewise, further accuracy improvement with out reducing the ambiguous range can
be obtained by adding more frequencies. As more frequencies are added the spectrum
and target resolution approach that obtained with a pulse or an FM-CW waveform.

CW & FMCW RADAR 30