The next generation of GUIDAR technology

The next generation of Guided Radar (GUIDAR) is based on Ultra Wide Band (UWB) radar signal processing. Just as spread spectrum technology has revolutionized the communications industry, UWB is dramatically changing radar signal processing. These advanced signal-processing techniques are adapted to leaky coaxial cable technology in the next generation GUIDAR to provide new features and enhanced performance. At the core of the new technology is an ultra high-speed digital correlator implemented in a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). Complementary orthogonal codes based on Golay codes are used to produce thumbtack correlation functions simultaneously in multiple range bins. The net result is "near continuous wave (CW)" performance in forty to eighty 11.6-meter long-range bins with targets located within one meter along the length of cable. This is a dramatic improvement over the 3% duty cycle of the original GUIDAR and the typical 100 to 200 meter long zones of current CW leaky cable sensors. Orthogonal complementary codes are transmitted on each of two leaky coaxial cables. The response from two parallel receive cables is fed to a full synchronous detection receiver. The orthogonal nature of the code allows the composite coded pulse response to be de-multiplexed into the independent response for each of the two cables. This ultra-high speed correlation process involves the addition and subtraction of the sampled in-phase and quadrature-phase responses to the multiple range bin accumulators at 10 million samples per second.