multifunction phased array radar (mpar) for aircraft … conway 27 october 2015 multifunction phased...
TRANSCRIPT
David Conway
27 October 2015
Multifunction Phased Array Radar (MPAR) for Aircraft and Weather
Surveillance
Distribution Statement A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited.
This work is sponsored by the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under Air Force Contract #FA8721-05-C-0002. Opinions, interpretations, recommendations and conclusions are those of the author and are not
necessarily endorsed by the United States Government.
Sponsors: Michael Emanuel, FAA Advanced Concepts and Technology Development (ANG-C63) Kurt Hondl, NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 2 MDC 27 October 2015
• Multiple stove-piped radars • Rotating dish technology • Many nearing end-of-life
Current Aircraft and Weather Radars
MPAR Concept
Multifunction Radar
Weather
Aircraft
Non-Cooperative Target
Multifunction Phased Array Radar
• Lower Life Cycle Costs – Reduced number of radar units – Lower O&M (no moving parts) – Streamlined support infrastructure – Simplified training and logistics
• Increased performance benefits – Adaptive scanning – Higher sample rates
CARSR ARSR-4
ASR-8 ASR-9 ASR-11
NEXRAD
Weather
Long Range Aircraft
Long Range Terminal TDWR
Terminal Aircraft*
*Military equivalents of ASR-8, 9, 11 are GPN-20, 27, 30
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 3 MDC 27 October 2015
Potential Reduction in Number of Radars
Greater potential cost savings if more radar types are replaced
TMPAR = Terminal MPAR
Num
ber o
f Rad
ars
Req
uire
d
(4-m antenna) (8-m antenna)
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
TMPARMPARLegacy
ASRs + GPNs + TDWR
ASRs + GPNs + TDWR + NEXRAD
ASRs + GPNs + TDWR +
NEXRAD + CARSR + ARSR-4
Radar types replaced
-14%
-28%
-35%
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 4 MDC 27 October 2015
MPAR Adaptive Beam Scanning Example
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 5 MDC 27 October 2015
Potential Federal Enterprise Capability Enhancements
• Mitigates equipage failures to cooperative / dependent aircraft
• Enhanced target acquisition and tracking – Improved clutter
performance
• Provides non-cooperative target positions
• Offers support to avoidance and well-clear policies and applications
Weather Observation and Prediction
Air Surveillance
• Extends high-quality observation to small and medium airports
• Icing risk identification
• Hail identification • Improved forecasts • Longer lead times
for severe weather warnings
New User Entrants
Wind Farm Mitigation
• Broad-spectrum clutter suppression
• Improved low altitude target detection and tracking
• Eliminate weather false-alarms on ATC displays
Improvements to Current Missions Emerging Needs
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 6 MDC 27 October 2015
• “Notional Functional Requirements” jointly being developed by FAA and NOAA mainly based on requirements for current radars
• Requirements added to anticipate emerging needs – Aircraft height estimation accuracy introduced
• 500 ft rms (0.25–30 nmi), 1000 ft rms (30–60 nmi), 2000 ft rms (60–150 nmi), 3000 ft rms (150–250 nmi)
– Wind turbine clutter mitigation • RCS = 1m2, Pd = 80%, 1000 ft above wind farm
– Precipitation volume scan update period reduced to 60 sec
MPAR Requirements
Requirements still evolving, will adapt to stakeholder composition
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 7 MDC 27 October 2015
Function Maximum Range for Detection of
1m2 Target
Required Coverage Angular Resolution
Waveform Scan Period
Range Altitude Az El
Terminal Area Aircraft
Surveillance (ASR-9/11)
55 nmi 60 nmi 25,000' 1.4° 5o ~18 pulses PRI ~ 1 ms 5 sec
En Route Aircraft
Surveillance (ARSR-4)
210 nmi
250 nmi 100,000' 1.4° 2.0° ~10 pulses
PRI ~ 3 ms 12 sec
Airport Weather (TDWR) 250 nmi 48 nmi 70,000' 1° 0.5° ~70 pulses
PRI ~ 0.6 ms >180 sec
Nationwide Weather
(NEXRAD) 260 nmi 250 nmi 70,000' 1° 1° ~50 pulses
PRI ~ 1 ms >240 sec
• Weather surveillance drives requirements for radar power and aperture size
• Aircraft surveillance drives requirements for beam management and revisit time
Legacy Requirements That Drive MPAR Performance
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 8 MDC 27 October 2015
Frequency: 2.7 - 2.9 GHz Diameter: 4m & 8m T/R per face: 5,000/ 20,000 Beamwidth: 2°/ 1° Bandwidth: 1 MHz Peak power: 8W/element Array cost/m2: $60k/ m2
Polarization: Dual linear/circular
MPAR Design Concept
• Four Faced Phased Array • Panel-based Aperture • Multiple Beams • Polarization Diverse
Two 6 x 2 beam clusters
Aircraft (up to 24 linear pol beams)
Weather (1 dual pol beam)
Aircraft Surveillance
Weather Surveillance
Straightforward
Challenging
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 9 MDC 27 October 2015
FY 07-11 • T/R Module and
Aperture PCB development
• Range test
• Initial cost/ performance data
FY 14-15 • Polarimetric
Performance
• Digital beam clusters
• Verify thermal management
• Initial radar testing
FY 12-13 • Component re-spin
• Tileable panels
• Backplane design
• Thermal Design
• Range testing
FY15-17
• Terminal MPAR Size, 4m
• Real time radar backend
• Aircraft/ Weather Processing
• Specification Development
MPAR Development Timeline
Demonstrator MPAR ATD
Performance Assessment
Aircraft and Weather Mode Development
Gen 2 Panel
2 Panel Subarray
Gen 1 Panel
2 Panel Subarray
10 Panel Demonstrator
76 Panel Advanced Technology
Demonstrator First Panel
Test and Eval
-60 -40 -20 0 20 40 60 -50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
Angle (deg)
Am
plitu
de (d
B)
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 10 MDC 27 October 2015
Panel Engineering Development Unit
Overlapped Digital Subarray Beamformer
(MIT LL)
Dual Polarized Balance-feed Stacked Patch
(MIT LL)
Polarization Flexible T/R Module (MIT LL, M/A-COM Tech)
• Fully populated 64 element Engineering Development Unit (EDU) – Dual simultaneous polarization – 2.7 – 2.9 GHz operating band – Transmit and receive functionality
Heat Sink
Top View Bottom View
Critical Technologies
16”
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 11 MDC 27 October 2015
Aperture PCB
T/R Modules
Spacer
DC/Logic Interconnects
Aperture PCB* Assembly
Backplane PCB
Tx Beamformer Driver
Gen2 Panel Architecture
* Printed Circuit Board
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 12 MDC 27 October 2015
Two Panel Subarray/ Ten Panel Demonstrator (TPD) Nearfield Chamber Test Set-Ups
Two Panel Subarray, Gen2 Panels November 2013
Ten Panel Demonstrator (TPD), Gen2+ Panels May 2015
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 13 MDC 27 October 2015
Ten Panel Demonstrator System Components/ Set-up for String Testing on Hanscom Runway
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 14 MDC 27 October 2015
Ten Panel Demonstrator Farfield Intensity Plots
U
V
Cal, Normalized Amplitude, (FF)
-1 -0.5 0 0.5-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
dB
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
U
V
Ref, Normalized Amplitude, (FF)
-1 -0.5 0 0.5-1
-0.8
-0.6
-0.4
-0.2
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
Uncalibrated Calibrated
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 15 MDC 27 October 2015
Short Range Scan
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
5.5
6
X (km)
Y (
km
)
Rx: V
dB
-60
-50
-40
-30
-20
-10
0
Tower
WRKO
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 16 MDC 27 October 2015
Logan Approach Radar Scan Clip Doppler Filtered
Tx V-Pol, <1% Duty, Small Sector Scan ± 15°; Receiving on Both Rx Channels, V & H-Pol Array Beamwidth ~ 3°
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 17 MDC 27 October 2015
NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory, Norman OK
NEXRAD MIT LL 10 Panel Demonstrator
MPAR Advanced Technology Demonstrator (2017)
Gen3 Panels
NWRT
Advanced Technology Demonstrator
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 18 MDC 27 October 2015
Conceptual Dome Layout
MIT LL Equipment • 3 Cabinets
4’ tall and 24 U each • Power conversion
and distribution
GD Equipment • 3 Cabinets
4’ tall and 24 U each • Digital beamformer • Xli Truetime • Control network
switch • DSP/computing • Data network switch • Radar control
GD Equipment • 2 Cabinets
3’ tall and 16 U each • Receivers • FSS • Exciter • DREXS
NSSL • Azimuth rotary platform • Pedestal Base • Power • HVAC
MIT LL Equipment • 2 Cabinets
3’ tall and 16 U each • Beam steering
generator
MIT LL Equipment • Servo controller • Servo motors
MIT LL • Antenna array • Cable wrap
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 19 MDC 27 October 2015
76 Panel Advanced Technology Demonstrator
Operational Parameters
• Provides critical risk reduction data – Aircraft & Weather Modes – Polarimetric performance &
calibration – Real-time back-end – Specification development
• Initial Operation Capability in FY18
Parameter Value Operating Band 2.7-3.1 GHz Peak Transmit Power (Single Pol) 29.2 kW
Weather Sensitivity at 50 km 0.25 dBZ Pulse Width 80 us Rx Band Width 6 MHz System Noise Figure 6.2 dB Receive Noise Floor -100.0 dBm Antenna Gain (Transmit) 42.3 dB Antenna Gain (Receive) 41.1 dB
Azimuth Beamwidth Tx = 1.47° Rx = 1.82°
Elevation Beamwidth Tx = 1.47° Rx = 1.76°
Array Elements, Total 4864 Array Size (w, h) 4.1m x 4.1m
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 20 MDC 27 October 2015
MPAR Panel Cost Progression Pr
ice
/ Tile
2 Tile Subarray
(FY13)
First Tile Prototype
(FY11)
$500K
Price per panel reduced by procurement volume & manufacturing infrastructure investments
Time
10 Tile Demo (FY15)
76 Tile Array (FY17)
High Volume Acq
(FY20)
$90K
$25K $10K
$250K Aperture Price
$60K/m2
Lincoln Laboratory Air Traffic Control Workshop 2015 MPAR - 21 MDC 27 October 2015
• MPAR is a potentially cost-effective and enhanced-performance solution for NextGen Surveillance and Weather Radar Capability (NSWRC)
• MIT LL has developed a conceptual MPAR system based on legacy and emerging observation needs
• Next steps: Build and test Advanced Technology Demonstrator to further mitigate technical risk and refine system requirements
Summary