The effect of phase noise in a stepped frequency continuous wave ground penetrating radar

In the application of stepped frequency continuous wave for a ground penetrating radar, the required range resolution is very high, in the order of a few centimetres. Because weak echoes of landmines must be detected against the strong background of the surface reflection, particular attention must be paid to the phase noise of the generated frequencies. The paper evaluates the effect of phase noise based on a frequency modulation approach. It is shown that due to the very short delay between transmission and reception, the requirements on the phase noise can be met using commercial off the shelf components