A Ka Band Imaging Radar: DRIVE on Board ONERA Motorglider

Following previous studies, a concept of low-cost imaging Ka-Band radar is presented in this paper. This radar is integrated into under-wings pods that are fixed on a STEMME S10VT motorglider. This radar concept combines real aperture in the cross-track direction, by the antennas geometrical aperture, and synthetic aperture in the along-track direction, realized with the aircraft motion. Radar front-end uses FMCW (for Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave) technique which allows to reduce the power emission to a few Watts. In addition, the use of the millimeter band induces antennas size reduction, and makes possible the radar integration into pods. Thus, radar particularities are a low- size, a low-weight and a low-cost basis, making this radar suitable for future integration on board small vehicles, such as UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle). The radar definition and specifications will be exposed, together with the first results obtained on April 2006. Two ways of operation will be exposed: An application as vertical sounder, using cylindrical horn antennas, and an application as SAR radar, using rectangular antennas. The two cases will be illustrated by samples of results.