Simulation, Design & Prototyping of RF transceiver For FMCW Radar Altimeter

Abstract

A linear frequency modulated continuous wave radar RF transceiver's simulation, design and prototyping is the objective of the project. The assigned task requires basic knowledge of RF components, circuits and systems as prerequisites. The first step involves the study of different pulse compression techniques, different types of waveforms, RF component's specification, and their signal processing and parameters affecting the RF circuit designing like noise, clutter reflection, refraction. Then the detailed study & comparative evaluation of radar receiver architectures & related design tradeoffs are also required to be studied before the designing of Radar. The second steps, involve the analyzing RF transceiver's behavioral simulation. It includes analysis of performance of whole transceiver block. Behavioral simulation is done by using all the behavioral blocks readily available in the software Microwave office. Fine tuning of each individual block is to be done to get the desired performance. Once the desired performance is achieved at behavioral level, each block can be replaced by its component specific model. The third step, involves the component specific modeling of the whole system. All filters and passive components are required be designed and use these designs for entire system level simulation. The entire task of simulation of RF transceiver is aimed at identifying the key component and fine tuning them to improve the overall performance. The prototyping of the circuit is required to be carried out using evaluation boards specific to the selected components. After prototyping the circuit, the testing and validation is to be carried out by making a test setup.