A low cost Ultra-Wide-Band Pulse Radar in a guided wave gauging application

This paper presents a low cost UWB-pulse-radar operating in the FCC 3.1 GHz-10.6 GHz band designed with standard RF-off-the-shelf components. The radar is based on the sequential sampling principle that will be briefly described. Special attention is paid on the pulse generation, where a coherent pulse oscillator in combination with a high speed switching circuitry is employed to gain pulse durations of 250 ps centered at 6 GHz. To demonstrate the resolution of the radar, a tank level scenario is presented allowing to detect liquid interfaces from 6.5 cm thickness.