X-Band Surveillance Radar: Taking a Holistic Systems Approach

Teledyne Lincoln Microwave has seen a growing demand from customers to supply integrated assemblies which provide the functionality normally delivered by multiple discreet components with the benefit of higher system performance overall. A recent example was an X-Band radar receiver sub-system assembly for use in a ground-based surveillance radar.Teledyne Lincoln Microwave was approached by a customer to design a waveguide limiter component for a radar application.The performance specified for the limiter was unusually demanding and therefore costly for an application of this kind.

Working in conjunction with the customer’s engineering group,Teledyne Lincoln Microwave’s low noise amplifier, circulator/Isolator and coupler designers were brought together with systems engineering expertise in a joint technical team. By re-balancing the contribution made by each component to the sub-system noise figure, the team was able to create the headroom necessary to introduce additional functionality and improve the sub-system’s overall performance.