Shubhaker .B, International Journal of Advance Research, Ideas and Innovations in Technology.
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(Volume 3, Issue 6)
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Phase Coded Radar Signals – Frank Code & P4 Codes
B. Shubhaker
Assistant Professor
Electronics and Communication Engineering,
St. Martin's Engineering College, Hyderabad, Telangana
shubhaker.subbu@gmail.com
Abstract: This dissertation presents an overview of phase coded radar signals based on frank codes and p4 codes used in target
detection techniques. For good range detection, high SNR is required. So matched filter is used in the processing of radar signals
which maximizes the peak signal power to mean noise ratio. In this analysis, the ambiguity function plays an important role.
Using ambiguity diagrams and auto correlation functions, various waveforms are compared in terms of PSL (peak side lobe
level). Ambiguity diagrams are obtained by using MATLAB code. Primarily simple pulse has been taken but it has some
drawbacks like poor range resolution, poor Doppler resolution, so pulse burst waveforms were taken and it has given better
Doppler resolution than simple pulse with some range resolution.
To improve the range resolution further, LFM (Linear Frequency Modulation) is used. The idea here is to sweep the
frequency band B linearly during the pulse duration T. It provides better range Resolution. To reduce the side lobe levels further
Weighting techniques are used for LFM, the presented weighting techniques are Hamming and Hanning. Because of these
weighting techniques, PSL is reduced by -14.4 dB but the resultant is range doppler coupling and side lobes, as it is a drawback,
NLFM (non-linear Frequency Modulation) is used which provides lower side lobes when compared to LFM.
In NLFM the method for shaping the spectrum is to deviate from the constant rate of frequency change and to spend more
time at frequencies that need to be enhanced. NLFM provides the better sidelobe levels compared to the LFM, and the
performance characteristics of the NLFM waveforms for sawtooth frequency coding are studied. NLFM waveforms are sensitive
to Doppler frequency shift and are not Doppler tolerant. The major limitations are system complexity, limited development of
NLFM generating devices and stringent phase control requirements.
With short pulse, short range target detection is done efficiently but for long range, detection resolution decreases. Hence,
the research work proceeded to other waveforms with high duration but the drawback is range resolution. To improve the range
resolution, pulse compression technique is used and this can be achieved by frequency coding and phase coding. In this
dissertation phase coding is employed for pulse compression of the signals and it is of two types named binary phase codes and
poly phase codes.
For Barker code of length 7, a sidelobe level of -16.9 dB is obtained, Barker code of length 11, a sidelobe level of -
20.82 dB and Barker code of length 13, a sidelobe level of -22.27 dB is obtained. Here the Barker code is limited to 13 and
sensitive to doppler shift. So to reduce the sidelobe level further Frank code has been introduced.
Frank code is derived from Barker code and it is a square length sequence. The Frank code is derived from a step
approximation to a linear frequency modulation waveform using M frequency steps and M samples per frequency. The Frank
code has a length or processing gain of ࡺ
=ࡹ
. For a Frank code of length 16, a sidelobe level of -21.07 dB is obtained but this
code is limited up to the maximum length of 139.