UWB SAR system PULSAR: new generator and antenna developments

Abstract

PULSAR is an Ultra Wide-Band short pulse Radar developed by the CELAR (French Technical Centre for Armament Electronics) and the IRCOM (Research Institute of Microwave and Optical Communications) in order to detect foliage and ground concealed targets. One of the most promising mission of such potential radar is the detection of buried and surface land mine fields. An instrumentation measurement system has been designed and implemented. This paper deals with the recent development efforts on this system, specially on a new pulse generator and a new UWB antenna. Recently, the LGE (Laboratoire de Génie Electrique) has developed a high voltage pulse coaxial generator. These recent developments allowed to increase the pulse output voltage and the pulse rise time. The new UWB antenna is able to support a very high voltage; the bandwidth and the gain are greater than the ones of the previous antenna.