Design And Implementation Of A Radar Target Simulator

In the process of radar research and production, researchers need to test and improve its performance repeatedly by lots of experiments. But only depending on field experiments will consume a lot of finances, materials and labours. In addition, experiments may be influenced by various external factors so that experiments can not be performed. The essence of the radar target simulation technology is simulating the electromagnetic reflecting characteristics of radar targets. The application of this technology shortens the development cycle of radar, saves development costs and speeds up the development progress. The technology is of great significance.The main contents of this thesis are as follows:1. The distance, velocity and amplitude fluctuation characteristics of point target are analyzed, and the mathematical model of target echo simulation is established, which is based on the theory of radar signals and radar echo. The simulation program is designed, and the algorithm of signal processing in the process of target echo simulation is verified;2. The design of radar target simulator based on FPGA is designed, and the hardware platform based on XC6VLX240 T of Xilinx is built. The logic design and function realization are accomplished, which is based on the hardware platform. The detailed design scheme such as clock module, high speed data acquisition module, external storage module, analog output module are shown. The simulation of target distance and velocity is realized by controlling the time delay and Doppler frequency shift. The time delay is achieved by using external storage, selecting DDR3 SDRAM as the core of the storage module. Additional uplink, downlink FIFO and one controller are added to complete the clock conversion and data synchronization; Doppler frequency shift is realized by quadrature mixing of the delayed signal and the frequency shift signal generated by NCO; Meanwhile the target RCS is simulated and the fluctuation is a Swerling II fluctuation model which obeys the Rayleigh distribution.3. The system function and performance verification method are given. The transmitting data and echo data are imported into Matlab, and the performance of the target simulator system is analyzed and verified by using Matlab. The distance, velocity and amplitude information of the simulated echo are verified, by using the method of pulse compression, ambiguity function and statistical histogram of output amplitude. The verification results show that the system design is reasonable and the system meets the requirements of the index.