Agile beam pulse to pulse interleaved radar modes
AssigneeRaytheon Company
InventorsKAPRIEL V. KRIKORIAN, Robert A. Rosen, Mary Krikorian
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system and method for concurrently operating a plurality of agile beam radar modes by pulse-to-pulse interleaving groups of the radar modes. Radar modes are grouped, each radar mode being allocated a certain amount of time for operation and a suitable pulse repetition frequency to improve or optimize the duty cycle of the antenna while concurrently operating the plurality of modes. Priorities may be assigned to groups or to individual radar modes within each group. In some embodiments, TDM communications are further interleaved within the radar modes to enhance the operation of the radar antenna.
Claims7
A method for concurrently operating a plurality of pulsed radar modes, comprising:
- grouping the radar modes into at least one group, the at least one group comprising a first group;
- allocating time to each radar mode within the first group;
- determining a pulse repetition frequency (PRF) for each radar mode within the first group;
- scheduling the transmission and reception of pulses for each radar mode within the first group such that the radar modes are at least partially interleaved;
- and
- activating the first group to execute the scheduled radar modes within the first group.
A system for concurrent operation of a plurality of radar modes, comprising:
- an agile beam antenna for transmitting and receiving radar signals;
- a transmitter for generating radar signals for driving the antenna;
- a receiver for receiving and processing signals received by the antenna;
- and
- a controller coupled to the antenna, the transmitter, and the receiver, for managing timing and operation of the antenna, the transmitter, and the receiver,
- wherein the controller is configured to interleave transmission and reception of a plurality of radar modes through the antenna, the radar modes being grouped into at least one group according to a compatibility of the radar modes based on at least one of a mode priority, a range of suitable PRFs for each mode, a burst-to-burst repetition rate, and a scan update rate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.