Advanced onboard RF radar subsystems

Alcatel Space has a great experience in radar satellite for many years and has developed numerous radar altimeters and SARs. This article presents the design principle of these RF subsystem and the more recently developed RF suh-assemhly for radar applications. All these equipment are using advanced technologies like pHemt LNA, HFET, pHEMT and HBT power amplifiers and the extensive use of MMIC in order to reduce size and mass ofthe RF subsystems.