TRANSMITTER AND RECEIVER DESIGN OF AN EXPERIMENTAL AIRBORNE SYNTHETIC APERTURE RADAR SENSOR

An Experimental Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Sensor has been designed and,developed at Multimedia University, Malaysia. The airborne system is an inexpensive C-band, single polarization, linear-FM airborne radar sensor. An innovative cancellation network is implemented to overcome the poor isolation of the circulator thus allow a single antenna to be used for transmitting and receiving the radar signal. The system will be used for monitoring and management of earth resources such as paddy fields, oil palm plantation and soil surface. This paper highlights the design and development of the SAR transmitter and receiver, as well as the evaluation result of the sensor. Calibration has been performed in the laboratory to verify the performance of the radar sensor. External calibration is accomplished by using three artificial point targets, i.e., 12” conducting sphere, 4”×8” dihedral corner reflector and 8” trihedral corner reflector. The field measurements are conducted in an empty car park, which is a low reflection outdoor environment. Both range detection and radar cross section (RCS) measurement capability are verified in the field experiments.