Agile-beam radar notably for the obstacle ‘sense and avoid’ function

• US 8,432,307 B2
• Filed: 09/14/2010
• Issued: 04/30/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/15/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Thales SA
• Original Assignee: Thales SA
• Inventors: Cornic, Pascal, Le Bihan, Patrick, Kemkemian, Stphane
• Primary Examiner(s): Sotomayor, John B.
• Assistant Examiner(s): WINDRICH, MARCUS E
• Application Number:
  US12/881,965
• Publication Number:
  US 20110221625A1
• Time in Patent Office: 959 Days
• Field of Search: 342/107, 342/113, 342/123, 342/133, 342139-142, 342146-147, 342157-158
• US Class Current: 342/29
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/424 Stacked beam radar
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/4463 using phased arrays
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/48 using multiple beams at emission or reception
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 13/933 of aircraft or spacecraft

Abstract

A radar device includes an antenna having at least two linear arrays of radiating elements being orthogonal to one another, a first array being used to focus a transmission beam in a first plane and a second beam being used to focus a reception beam in a second plane, orthogonal to the first plane. The focussing of the beam is obtained in the first plane by colored emission followed by a reception beam formation by computation, and in that the focussing of the beam is obtained in the second plane using reception beam formation by computation. The colored emission is carried out by combining antenna transmission sub-arrays in such a manner as to form a sum channel and a difference on reception channel according to the monopulse technique.

Claims

1. A radar device comprising:

an antenna including at least two linear arrays of radiating elements being orthogonal to one another, wherein the at least two linear arrays of radiating elements include a first linear array of radiating element being used to focus a transmission beam in a first plane and a second linear array of radiating element being used to focus a reception beam in a second plane that is orthogonal to the first plane, wherein the focussing of the transmission beam being obtained in the first plane by colored emission followed by the reception beam formation by computation, and the focussing of the reception beam being obtained in the second plane using the reception beam formation by computation, the colored emission being carried out by combining antenna transmission sub-arrays in such a manner as to form a sum channel and a difference channel on reception array according to monopulse technique.

2. The radar device according to claim 1, wherein the first plane is an elevation plane and the second plane is an azimuthal plane.

3. The radar device according to claim 1, wherein the first linear array of radiating elements being substantially vertical, a first sub-array is formed from an upper part of the first linear array of radiating elements and a second sub-array is formed from a lower part of the first linear array of radiating elements.

4. The radar device according to claim 3, wherein the colored emission is carried out by means of a direct Barker code.

5. The radar device according to claim 4, wherein the direct Barker code is emitted on the first sub-array and an inverted direct Barker code is emitted on the second sub-array.

6. The radar device according to claim 3, wherein the colored emission is carried out by means of a frequency code.

7. The radar device according to claim 6, wherein the frequency coding comprises in emitting the transmission beam at a given frequency on the first sub-array and in emitting the transmission beam at a different frequency, these two frequencies being orthogonal over the duration of a transmission pulse.

8. The radar device according to claim 1, further comprising at least one additional linear array of radiating elements for focussing a transmission beam substantially parallel to the first linear array of radiating elements, the various transmission beams having different directions, each beam being dedicated to one part of an angular range to be covered.

9. The radar device according to claim 1, wherein the second linear array of radiating elements comprises at least two lines of radiating elements forming an interferometer being ambiguous in elevation, wherein the ambiguity being removed by focussing the reception beam in a direction targeted.

10. The radar device according to claim 1, wherein the focussing is obtained in one plane by electronic scanning on transmission and in the other plane using beam formation by computation on reception.

11. The radar device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission part and the reception part are constructed as a multilayer printed circuit, the radiating elements being etched onto one of a plurality of faces of the multilayer printed circuit, active components being mounted onto other face of the multilayer printed circuit, interconnection and distribution elements being formed on internal layers of the multilayer printed circuit.

12. The radar device according to claim 1, wherein the radar device equips an aircraft for an obstacle detection and avoidance function.