Digital antenna architectures using commercial off-the-shelf hardware

Abstract

The changes in war fighting tactics and advancement of technology shape the ways to implement and design multifunction phased array radars. This thesis investigated whether the commercial modulation boards used in the 3-D 2.4- GHz phased array transmit antenna is capable of wideband performance. The phase of the transmitted signal out of the modulator board was adjusted to provide a phase shift from 0 to 2 ,̧ and the insertion phases at these phase settings were measured using a Vector Network Analyzer, sweeping the frequency from 0.8 to 2.5 GHz. The measured insertion phases are used to simulate the radiation pattern of a linear phased array, and the results show that modulator does not have instantaneous wideband characteristics. This thesis also looked at the design of the complementary phased array receiver architecture using commercially available demodulator boards. The demodulator board was successfully configured to operate as a phase shifter. Phase shifted transmit signals were injected into the demodulator, and corresponding phase shifts were measured via the In-Phase and Quadrature voltages.