Design of a novel monopulse antenna system using the time-modulated antenna arrays

A novel monopulse antenna for a tracking radar system is proposed using the time modulated antenna array technique. The time modulation technique applied in the antenna arrays overcomes the usual need for compromise between sum and difference beams and avoids the need for implementation of two separate feed networks. The time modulated antenna array also relaxes the error tolerance of the tracking accuracy from the amplitude and phase errors, due to the new design freedom of “time” which can be controlled precisely and quickly. Moreover, the position of the target can be recovered by two reflected echoes from one previously transmitted pulse, thus the tracking errors resulting from the excitation errors and receiver noise in conventional antenna arrays can be greatly alleviated. Numerical results show that with the aid of time modulation technique, one sum beam and two difference beams can be simultaneously obtained either for the boresight or off-boresight target tracking. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2010.