Phase Modulated Bistatic Radar with an Analog Correlator: A Systematic Study

Abstract

This work presents a phase-modulated radar based on an analog correlator. We demonstrate a novel radar architecture that combines the energy efficiency of analog processing and the accuracy and flexibility of digital processing while avoiding their respective pitfalls. We introduce the proposed analog correlator, describe its theory of operation, and develop a numerical model to analyze and predict the output and the detection sensitivity. Next, we perform a thorough architectural analysis and present system-level simulations of the proposed structure. Finally, based on this investigation we derive circuit requirements and perform extensive radar simulations characterizing the performance of the implemented analog correlator. There is agreement between theoretical derivations, expected performance from system-level models, and the resulting performance from circuit-level time-domain simulations, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed scheme for high-performance pulse-modulated radars.