SharpEye™ Solid-State Radar

SharpEye™ Technology - no magnetron

SharpEye™ is a radical and innovative departure from current marine navigation radar practice in that it is a mono-static pulse radar which uses the doppler effect to determine target velocities. This is achieved by processing received echoes in a bank of narrowband coherently integrating filters which resolve targets within particular velocity bands. SharpEye™ is able to separate targets from clutter due to their differing radial velocity components. This extra dimension gives a significant performance advantage in detecting small targets in clutter resulting in safer ship operations.

In addition to measuring the amplitude of the received signal, as in conventional radar, SharpEye™ extracts the relative motion of targets by measuring the phase of received radar echoes relative to the phase of the transmission. Extracting this information requires that the transmitter and receiver elements of the radar must be extremely stable, this precludes the use of a magnetron as the transmitting device.

To achieve this stability SharpEye™ uses a solid-state power amplifier with a peak output power of just 170W and a duty of 10%. This contrasts with conventional magnetron based marine navigation radar systems which have a 30kW output and duty typically less than 0.05%.

SharpEye™ transmits relatively long pulses in order to illuminate targets with sufficient energy for detection. To provide the required short range performance, SharpEye™ transmits a patented sequence of pulses of differing length, with each pulse optimised to cover a specified but overlapping range bracket.

A filter bank processes the echoes received from the pulse sequence to extract the radial velocities of targets and clutter alike. Within the digital signal processor detection thresholds for each of the filters within the bank are calculated adaptively according to sophisticated algorithms, providing optimum control of false alarms while maximising clutter suppression and target detection.

The technology also provides a Built In Test capability (BIT) wherein the system continuously measures key performance parameters such as RF output power, VSWR, oscillator frequencies and receiver sensitivity at frame rate and confirms to the user that the radar is operating within its performance envelope. This system provides an alert within seconds of any degradation in radar performance occurring and removes the need for operator initiated performance checks.

SharpEye™ technology and innovation provides the commercial marine market with a significant advance in both the performance and reliability of navigation radar leading to increased safety in ship operations.

Specification for the S-Band SharpEye™