Calibration of pulsed phased arrays with wide instantaneous bandwidths

Modern day phased array radar systems are requiring increasingly wider bandwidths. These systems typically use a short pulse or an equivalent waveform. When this pulse travels through the system, it passes through a series of RF components, each with its own impulse response, or equivalently its own transfer function. Calibration of arrays with wide instantaneous bandwidths entails a new methodology. Both the transfer functions of the beamformer and the antenna element must be calibrated in regard to both the temporal and spatial dependences, adding new challenges to the standard phased array analysis.