REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

www.mod.gov.rs

MINISTRY OF DEFENCE

Material Resources Sector

Defensive Technologies Department

Military Technical Institute

www.vti.mod.gov.rs

The analogue platform of digital defined radar

slobodan simić

Military Academy, Belgrade, Serbia, simasimic01@gmail.com

Zoran Golubičić

Peripolis – elektronika, Belgrade, Serbia, golubicic.zoran@gmail.com  

aleksa j. zejak

RT-RK Computer based systems, Novi Sad, Serbia, aleksa.zejak@rt-rk.com 

Abstract: Main component in software defined radar, responsible for radar signal processing and signal generation is FPGA circuits. Internal clocks generators inside the FPGAs are capable to operate at the speeds of few tens of gigahertz. Unfortunately, these signals are not available at the FPGA pins. High speed data streams available at the I/O pins are automatically coded by FPGA transceivers and transceiver bit streams are not suitable for the application in form of radar signals. Additional problem could be the price and availability of FPGA components with gigabit transceiver. Digitally generated analog signals are limited in spectrum and could be directly applied in VHF and UHF radars. In order to apply digitally generated analog signals in X, Ku or Ka radars, analogue platforms fully transparent to low frequency radar signal (generated digitally by FPGA) is described. Proposed architecture performs required functionality by minimizing the number of the analogue components. There are no requirements for analog hardware programming i.e. all flexibility is achieved by digital components. Proposed analogue platform enables independent development, testing and production of analogue hardware and digital hardware and software components.

Key words: Up converter, Down converter, FPGA, Frequency reference