A New Measurement Technique to Enable Engineers To Quickly Troubleshoot Radar Design Problems

Abstract

Until recently, analyzing many radar signals was not a straightforward task. Modern radars depend on complex RF signals that vary with time. To truly understand system performance and troubleshoot today's complex radar signals, the time, frequency, and modulation domains all require analysis in a time-correlated fashion. Traditionally, no single test instrument was designed for this breadth of radar pulse analysis capability. Engineers were thus forced to use many different test instruments in custom-built test sets to collect sufficient data for reliable troubleshooting. Using multiple test instruments is costly, time consuming and can introduce measurement uncertainty that can lead to unreliable diagnostics. The latest generation of Real-Time Spectrum Analyzers (RTSA) solves these problems by providing the ability to trigger on an RF pulse, seamlessly capture it into memory and analyze the pulse in several time-correlated domains on a single instrument. This paper examines how the newest generation of RTSA pulse measurement technology can replace many traditional radar test sets for rapid and reliable radar systems diagnostics.