Design and Implementation of Scalable Beam Steering Control System for Phased Array Radar

Abstract

Transmit/Receive (T/R) modules plays important role in advanced phased array radar system consists of array of antenna elements. In order to produce beam pattern for multiple radiating elements, the phase angle for each T/R module should be assigned with calculated value. When phase gradient is sent to T/R unit, phase values are calculated for array of elements associated with them. The paper presents a beam steering control system architecture consists of Graphical user interface, group controller with scalable T/R control unit (TRCU) having two hexa decagon T/R module controllers (HTRMCs) and control logic unit for parallel data flow. Calculation of 6 bit phase value from the phase gradient carried out using FPGA. Also, use of logic core and quantization of phase values are discussed. The paper also reports the area factor for the proposed architecture.