Real-time implementation of frequency-modulated continuous-wave synthetic aperture radar imaging using field programmable gate array

Abstract

A new miniature linear frequency-modulated continuous-wave radar which mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle is presented. It allows the accomplishment of high resolution synthetic aperture radar imaging in real-time. Only a Kintex-7 field programmable gate array from Xilinx is utilized for whole signal processing of sophisticated radar imaging algorithms. The proposed hardware architecture achieves remarkable improvement in integration, power consumption, volume, and computing performance over its predecessor designs. The realized design is verified by flight campaigns.