SAR with Digital Beamforming on Receive Only

M. Younis, Student IEEE Member and W. Wiesbeck, Fellow IEEE

University of Karlsruhe,
Institut f i r Hochstfrequenztechnikund Elektronik, Kaiserstr. 12,76 128 Karlsruhe, Germany
Tel.: +49-721-608 6267; Fax: +49-721-69 18 65
E-Mail: manvan.younis@etec.uni-karlsruhe.de

ABSTRACT classification requires polarimetric systems and multiple (>2)

frequencies.
Since their invention, the performance of Synthetic
Aperture Radar (SAR) systems has improved considerably. For interferometric systems, intended, e.g. for the mapping
Operation close to the theoretical limits of accuracy and of terrain height or change detection, high resolutions of
resolution are possible using state of the art processing several ten centimeters, even from spaceborne SAR is
techniques and hardware components. Nevertheless, the required. Differential interferometric resolution has to be in
principle is still the same: The S A R is a side-looking radar the range of centimeters.
where resolution is achieved in range by bandwidth and in
azimuth by Doppler processing. The price for improved State of the Art Systems: The above requirements can
performance is paid through systems which are more be realized by state of the art SAR systems with wide
expensive, heavier and highly complicated. bandwidths and multiple operation modes like scan mode,
spot mode and multiple spots. SAR transmitter and receiver
This paper presents a new system idea for a SAR with areequipped with phased array front ends. These phased array
digital beamforming on receive only. Multiple receive front ends are available since a few years ago in S-band, C-
antennas are used together with one or at most two high band and X-band. For the above given resolution a full
efficiency transmit antennas. The return signal is separately spaceborne phased array SAR requires several hundred T/R-
recorded from each receiving antenna. Application for modules with full phase and amplitude control. For full
groundbased, airborne, or spaceborne systems is possible and polarimetric operation polarization switches and dual
the system configuration simplifies considerably orthogonal polarized antennas are implemented. Phase control
up to five and six bits and amplitude control up to 30 dB is
REQUIREMENTS OF SAR SYSTEMS achieved [ 11.
SAR systems are presently used groundbased, airborne and
Most of the innovations in RF are implemented or being
spaceborne. Typical groundbased applicationsare the detection
implemented in the newest spaceborne systems. Up to now
of abandoned landmines and unexploded ordnance. They m
the above stated requirements have not been reported as
also used in archeology, geology and for the detection of
fulfilled.
buried objects. Airborne applications include surveillance and
mapping. The same applications are covered by spaceborne Deficiencies of State of the Art Systems: State of
sensors. Presently, the tasks are shifting more and more from the Art S A R Systems, incorporating TR-modules are
military use to applications for the benefit of mankind. The becoming RF "dinosaurs". The technical advancements partly
following primary requirements are common to all achieved are paid by major deficiencies with respect to the
applications: overall system performance and primary requirements. These
are for example:
- high resolution
- wide coverage - high weight
- low cost - low efficiency
- high reliability. - low reliability
- low environmental stability
Groundbased, a two or three dimensional resolution bet- - difficult calibration
ween 5 cm and 30 cm is the goal. Airborne, the resolution is - limited dynamic range
(for single look) in the range of several ten centimeters. - high noise figure
Spaceborne, the state of the art is a two dimensional
resolution of several meters. Resolutions down to a meter or TR-modules for dual polarization operation, independent
more are either in development or in planning. Target of frequency range, have the size of a cigarette box and the

0-7803-5207-6/99/$10.00 Q 1999 IEEE. 1773

weight of a cellular phone. The prizes exceed by far those of Airborne SAR Systems: The goals and the advantages
cellular phones, even in high quantities. The state of the art for an airborne, multi-static, receive only digital beamforming
efficiency of T/R-modules is ~ 1 8 % RF. subsystems with synthetic aperture radar can be the following:
T/R-modules require several thousand connectors and several
hundred cables in addition to planar microwave circuits. This
- wide swath coverage
results, although soft degradation is experienced, in low
- high 2-D resolution
reliability. The losses in the cables and connectors are
- low cost receiving sub-system.
considerable. Noise figures of 5 dB and more are state of the
The system block diagram for one transmitting antenna and
art. A major problem is the frequency, temperature, power
four receiving antennas is shown in Fig. 1
level and time dependent calibration. Two and more
&h antenna
dimensional look up tables are installed to handle this
problem. The cost of these RF subsystems is immense and
caused many agencies to stop or change their programs.
recdve subarray.

Overall it can be stated that the price that was paid and is
being paid for the advancement of technology is extremely
high. Despite of this, the goal of wide coverage is not
reached. In spot mode operation the resolution is higher but
the coverage is low compared to standard operation. In
standard operation the resolution is marginal. It is also the
intention of the following system proposal to overcome this
dilemma.

NEW SAR SYSTEMS Fig. 1 Airborne SAR system

The above listed inherent deficiencies of state of the art Each antenna beam has to cover the same area for proper
SAR systems may be overcome by the introduction of operation. This requires equal half power beamwidth for the
several, mostly new ideas for S A R system concepts: transmit antenna and each of the receiving antennas, thus
OBW,uansmitt
= OBW,reccive.See for example the forward looking
- forward looking S A R SAR with digital beamforming on receive only in [4].
- digital beam forming on receive only
- single frequency operation. Transmit Sub-system: For this synthetic aperture radar a
sketch of the transmit sub-system is shown in Fig. 2.
The idea of a forward looking SAR has been reported
&lar, IOU reflector antenna
several times, for example in [2]. Digital beam forming is on
the way to become an important tool in communications for
space division multiple access (SDMA) for the improvement
of network capacities. Totally new is the concept of a single
frequency operation with a forward looking S A R [3]. It has to
be stated, that not each of these items is advantageous for each
operation.

DIGITAL BEAMFORMING ON RECEIVE ONLY

SAR SYSTEM
In the following, the ideas for an airborne S A R system
with digital beamforming on receive only are presented in
more detail. A spaceborne application has not yet been Fig. 2 Airborne transmit sub-system
investigated, but in principle the above ideas can also be The configuration is extremely simple and consists of a
realized for a spaceborne SAR.The major problem may be the stable local oscillator (LO), a digital signal synthesizer, an
power budget for the multiple receive antennas with lower up-converter, filter, power amplifier and the illuminating fuced
gain, compared to the standard spaceborne SAR. This lower antenna. The Coho is digitized as reference for the receive
gain can partly be compensated by the high transmit signals. The efficiency of this transmit subsystem can exceed
efficiency, exceeding 50% with a single TWT and a reflector 50%.Therefore the transmit antenna gain can be reduced up to
antenna for transmit. 3 dB compared to conventional airborne S A R (the overall

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efficiency of phased array transmit subsystem will not exceed The receive subsystem exhibits also several distinct
16%). The swath becomes wider and the synthetic aperture advantages:
longer.
- low gain sub array antennas
Receive Sub-system: The receive sub-system comprises - low noise figure
multiple receive antennas for which a typical configuration is - future growth capability
shown in Fig. 3. Each receiving antenna is connected to a - simultaneous focusing of the whole swath.
filter, a low noise amplifier, a down converter and an V Q
digitizer. Special care has to be taken in this case regarding The system improvements, compared to conventional
the placement of the receive antennas. Although the airborne S A R , are obvious. The single receiving subsystems
positioning is arbitrary, the antennas have to be mounted in a can be used for a multitude of different applications on
way that no ambiguities arise. For typical airbome different aircraft. They can be almost conformally mounted on
applications at least two antennas out of the whole set have to the aircraft body. A high RF isolation, because of the
be closely spaced, e.g. 2h. For a forward looking SAR the separation from the transmitter, can be achieved. Depending
maximum distance between receiving elements gives the on the processing, immediately an interferometric S A R for
achievable resolution. If the receiving antennas are unequally 2l/*-D resolution results.
spaced an optimum can be reached for both resolution and
unambiguous range. CONSIDERATIONS:
The system design requires a trade off between resolution,
swath-width, antenna size and power balance. The lower the
antenna gain, the wider is the illumination angle and the
better is the resolution. A lower gain reduces the receive
power and lowers the signal to noise ratio.

Fig. 3 Airborne multi-static receive sub-system
Compared to phased array systems the above configuration
with multiple parallel receiving channels has the following
LITERATURE:
[l] Zahn, R., "Hardware Developments for the German
SmartSAR Program", 1998 IEEE International
Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium
Proceedings, Seattle, Vol. 3 , pp. 1701-1703.
[21 Carrara, W., Goodman, R., Majewski, R., "Spotlight
Synthetic Aperture Radar", Artech House, 1995
[3] Wiesbeck, W., Fischer, C. "New SAR System
Configuration for Detection of Buried Objects 'I,

advantages: accepted for presentation, IEEE International Geoscience

and Remote Sensing Symposium IGARSSP9.
- high transmit efficiency [4] F. Witte, T. Sutor and R. Scheunemann: "A new Sector
- low cost Imaging Radar for Enhanced Vision - SIREV".
- low weight -
Aerosense SPIE 12th Annual International Symposium
- qualified technology on Aerospace-Defense Sensing, Simulation and
- instantaneous coverage of a wide swath Controls, Orlando, Florida, 13-14 April 1998, SPIE
- long synthetic aperture. Vol. 3364, pp. 215-222.

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