T/R module for CASA Phase-Tilt Radar Antenna Array

Author

Medina, R.H. ; Knapp, E.J. ; Salazar, J.L. ; McLaughlin, David J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Univ. of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA, USA

fYear

2012

fDate

Oct. 29 2012-Nov. 1 2012

Firstpage

1293

Lastpage

1296

Abstract

This paper describes the transmit/receive module for the X-band Phase-Tilt array antenna being developed at the Engineering Research Center for the Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere (CASA). Architecture, fabrication and electrical performance are described. The RF subsystem is designed with commercial-off-the-shelf GaAS MMICs. The design includes a custom PIN diode based diversity switch that provides polarization diversity to the array elements in both transmit and receive channels. The module operates at 9.36 GHz and has a bandwidth of 1.0 GHz. Gain and phase are controlled by a 6-bit digital attenuator and 6-bit digital phase shifter respectively. Commands and RF switching signals are controlled with a FPGA. The T/R modules were fully tested using a measurement station developed specifically for this purpose.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; MIMIC; antenna phased arrays; field programmable gate arrays; gallium arsenide; microwave antenna arrays; microwave phase shifters; phased array radar; radar antennas; receiving antennas; transmitting antennas; CASA phase-tilt radar antenna array; Collaborative Adaptive Sensing of the Atmosphere; FPGA; GaAs; PIN diode based diversity; RF subsystem; RF switching signals; T/R module; X-band phase-tilt array antenna; array elements; bandwidth 1.0 GHz; commercial-off-the-shelf MMIC; digital attenuator; digital phase shifter; frequency 9.36 GHz; measurement station; polarization diversity; receive channels; transmit channels; transmit-receive module; word length 6 bit; Arrays; Gain; Phase shifters; Radar; Radar antennas; Switches; Temperature measurement; CASA; Microwave Shicthes; PIN diodes; Phased Array; Radar; T/R module;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Microwave Conference (EuMC), 2012 42nd European

Conference_Location

Amsterdam

Print_ISBN

978-1-4673-2215-7

Electronic_ISBN

978-2-87487-026-2

Type

conf

Filename

6459192