Date of Award

12-2015

Degree Name

MS in Electrical Engineering

Department/Program

Electrical Engineering

Advisor

Dean Arakaki, John Saghri

Abstract

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) systems generate two dimensional images of a target area using RF energy as opposed to light waves used by cameras. When cloud cover or other optical obstructions prevent camera imaging over a target area, SAR can be substituted to generate high resolution images. Linear frequency modulated signals are transmitted and received while a moving imaging platform traverses a target area to develop high resolution images through modern digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. The motivation for this joint thesis project is to design and construct a scaled SAR system to support Cal Poly radar projects. Objectives include low-cost, high resolution SAR architecture development for capturing images in desired target areas. To that end, a scaled SAR system was successfully designed, built, and tested. The current SAR system, however, does not perform azimuthal compression and range cell migration correction (image blur reduction). These functionalities can be pursued by future students joining the ongoing radar project. The SAR system includes RF modulating, demodulating, and amplifying circuitry, broadband antenna design, movement platform, LabView system control, and MATLAB signal processing. Each system block is individually described and analyzed followed by final measured data. To confirm system operation, images developed from data collected in a single target environment are presented and compared to the actual configuration.

Download

Share

COinS