The mutual coupling that exists between the antenna elements in an antenna array can be described with a mutual impedance.

No abstract

Trihedral corner reflectors are the preferred canonical target for SAR performance evaluation for many radar development programs. The conventional trihedrals have problems with substantially reduced Radar Cross Section (RCS) at low grazing angles, unless they are tilted forward, but in which case other problems arise. Consequently there is a need for better low grazing angle performance for trihedrals. This is facilitated by extending the bottom plate. A relevant analysis of RCS for an infinite ground plate is presented. Practical aspects are also discussed.

Radar imaging and detection of objects buried in soil has potentially important applications in the areas of nonproliferation of weapons, environmental monitoring, hazardous-waste site location and assessment, and even archeology. In order to understand and exploit this potential, it is first necessary to understand how the soil responds to an electromagnetic wave, and how targets buried within the soil scatter the electromagnetic wave. We examine the response of the soil to a short pulse, and illustrate the roll of the complex dielectric permittivity of the soil in determining radar range resolution. This leads to a concept of an optimum frequency and bandwidth for imaging in a particular soil. We then propose a new definition for radar cross section which is consistent with the modified radar equation for use with buried targets. This radar cross section plays the same roll in the modified radar equation as the traditional radar cross section does in the free-space radar equation, and is directly comparable to it. The radar cross section of several canonical objects in lossy media is derived, and examples are given for several objecdsoil combinations.

Application of Taylor weighting (taper) to an antenna aperture can achieve low peak sidelobes, but combining the Taylor weighting with quantized attenuators and phase shifters at each radiating element will impact the performance of a phased-array antenna. An examination of array performance is undertaken from the simple point of view of the characteristics of the array factor. Design rules and guidelines for determining the Taylorweighting parameters, the number of bits required for the digital phase shifter, and the dynamic range and number of bits required for the digital attenuator are developed. For a radar application, when each element is fed directly from a transmit/receive module, the total power radiated by the array will be reduced as a result of the taper. Consequently, the issue of whether to apply the taper on both transmit and receive configurations, or only on the receive configuration is examined with respect to two-way sidelobe performance. 4This Page Intentionally Blank 5