An airborne radar for three dimensional imaging and observation - technical realisation and status of ARTINO

Over the past years, the range of small unmanned arial vehicles (UAV) has increased steadily, and with it the interest to adopt them in earth observation, reconnaissance, monitoring, and surveillance missions by imaging systems. This paper presents the concept and status of a 3D imaging radar suitable for small UAVs. ARTINO combines a real aperture, realized by a linear array of nadir pointing antennas, and a synthetic aperture, which is spanned by the moving airplane. In consequence of the restricted payload the radar uses frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) technique with direct down-conversion in Ka band. Hence, the power consumption of the radar and the size of the antennas are reduced. In comparison to the standard complex and cost intensive phased array technique, it requires only a moderate number of antennas and microwave components. The scope of this paper is to present an overview of the front-end architecture, design, and realization status.