Development of a 94 GHz imaging radar for use as a navigation sensor

The primary objective of any terrestrial navigation system is to determine unambiguously its own position or the position of one of its members relative to a specific destination. In range this can be achieved using wide bandwidth techniques (narrow pulses or large frequency chirps) but in azimuth, the limited antenna aperture available on airborne platforms is a major restriction. A technique employed to circumvent this problem is the increase of the frequency to produce a narrower beam from the same aperture. This paper deals with the application of this technique to generate images with sufficiently good resolution for autonomous navigation purposes