High-resolution instrumentation radar

An instrumentation radar that uses a chirp waveform to achieve high-range resolution is described. High-range-resolution instrumentation radars evaluate the target response to operational waveforms used in high-performance radars and/or obtain display of the individual target scattering mechanisms to letter understand the scattering process. This particular radar was efficiently constructed from a combination of commercially available components and in-house fabricated circuitry. This instrumentation radar operates at X-band and achieves a 4.9-in.-range resolution. A key feature of the radar is the combination of amplitude weighting with a high degree of waveform fidelity to achieve a good range sidelobe performance. This range sidelobe performance is important to avoid masking lower-level target returns in the range sidelobes of higher-level target returns.