EE 492 PROJECT

LABVIEW BASED RCS MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

SUBMITTED BY: smail YILDIZ Gksenin BOZDA SUPERVISOR: Asst. Prof. Dr. A.Sevin AYDINLIK BECHTELER
Spring, 2010 2011
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CONTENTS

ABSTRACT....................... 3

A)INTRODUCTION.. 1.RADAR CROSS SECTION..

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2.RCS OF SIMPLE OBJECTS.. 5

B)MEASUREMENT SYSTEM. 7 1.SETTING UP HARDWARE & REFERANCE OBJECTS.. 10 2.BUILDING VIS.. 12 A)NETWORK ANALYZER SUB VIs. 12 B)TURN TABLE SUB VIs 16

C)MEASURUMENTS. 19 1.CALIBRATION OF NETWORK ANALYZER 19 2.CALCULATION OF RCS VALUES 3.ANALYZING OF COLLECTED DATA.
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D)CONCLUSION.. 26

E)REFERENCES. 27

ABSTRACT
The ambition of the project is developing a bistatic radar cross section measurement system. Hardware components of the system are used in remote mode and they are controlled by a computer program written in LabView. All of the measurements are done in a anechoic chamber. Finally, collected data is analyzed and radar cross section values of the objects are calculated and graphed.

A)INTRODUCTION
Stealth technology is any technology that makes aircrafts, missiles, ships, submarines, personnel etc. ideally invisible to radar, sonar and the other detection methods. This technology without no doubt provide a great advantage who gets it. Thus, so many researchers studies on this technology and so many companies and countries support and invest in these researches. In active sensor used detection systems such as radar, invisibility is not possible so main purpose of these systems is decreasing detection distance. In other words ,decreasing detection distance means that showing the objet smaller than its original size . The smallness can be expressed as Radar Cross Section in square meter. The ambition of the project is developing a Bistatic RCS Measurement System. The system is designed for indoor measurements for analyzing the rcs values of objects in terms of frequency, position and polarization. We mainly used a network analyzer, a turn table, a computer and two antennas with same specifications for setting up the system and all measurements are done in anechoic chamber at YTE wireless center.

1.RADAR CROSS SECTION

Radar Cross Section is the measure of a target's ability to reflect radar signals in the direction of the radar receiver. It is a measure of the ratio of backscatter power per steradian (unit solid angle) in the direction of the radar (from the target) to the power density that is intercepted by the target. General formula is:

It is obviously seen that rcs is not a ratio of incident and scaterring waves. RCS value is the answer of this question: How many square meter must be the object to get Ps power from the Si density. We generally use dbsm (desibel square meter) unit for rcs to get more understandable graphs .

1.RADAR CROSS SECTION of SIMPLE OBJECTS

Because of its pure radial symmetry, the perfectly conducting sphere is the simplest of all three-dimensional scatterers. Despite the simplicity of its geometrical surface, however, and the invariance of its echo with orientation, the RCS of the sphere varies considerably with electrical size. The log-log plot of the figure shown below reveals the rapid rise in the RCS in the region 0<kr < 1, which is known as the Rayleigh region. The central region characterized by the interference between the specular and creeping-wave contributions is known as the resonance region .There is no clear upper boundary for this part of the curve, but a value near kr = 10 is generally accepted. The region kr > 10 is dominated by the specular return from the front of the sphere and is called the optics region. For spheres of these sizes the geometric optics approximation r2 is usually an adequate representation of the magnitude of the RCS.

All measurements are done in optical region to get a constant rcs value. Used frequencies are in the range of 8 -12 GHz and used reference objects radius is 0,075 m. The ka values of the our measurements are between 12.5664 and 18.8496. This range obviously satisfies the optical region criteria.

Nose-on incidence lies at the center of the patterns, and the sharp peaks near the sides are the specular returns from the slanted sides of the cone, also called specular flashes. The RCS formula for singly curved surfaces given in the left side figure. It is used to predict the amplitudes of the specular flash within a fraction of a decibel.

B) MEASUREMENT SYSTEM
Our measurement system is based on LabView programming. It supplies us to configure and t control the necessary devices and process the collected data. The measurements are made in an anechoic chamber that is a room to be designed for stopping reflections of either sound or electromagnetic waves. The Figure shown below is the general hardware Figure1 structure of the system.

Figure 1 (General Hardware Structure) The network analyzer generates the signal with desired frequency ranges and number of points for the transmission and this signal is sent by the transmitter antenna (one of the horn antennas). The other horn antenna that is used for receiver is placed near the transmitter antenna and receives the signal that is reflected from object. Thanks to network the analyzer, we can easily measure S parameters. For this measurement, we measure S21 that S-parameters. is the ratio of transmitted power wave at port2 to incident power wave at port1. The incident objects are placed on a turn table and S21 values are measured with desired step size and ranges. For each step, we get the data and collected data is written in a text file. All of these operations are managed with the LabVi program set on a laptop. ged LabView

Figure 2 (LabView Front Panel User Interface) Figure 2 is Front Panel of the software and it is used as a user interface. User selects the visa address of each device and determines speed, start-stop degrees, step size for turn table; S-parameter, frequency range, number of points for network analyzer. After determining all configurations program is run. While program is running user can observe measured S-parameters for each step on the black boxes. ram

Figure 3 (Labview Block Diagram) Figure 3 is Block Diagram of the software and it is called VI. All configuration, control, arithmetic and logic operations are done in the diagram. We have some main subVIs and they also have their own several subVIs. s For this measurement, we have to control two main devices, turn table and network analyzer. While we operating these two devices together, , we have to be careful on two critical points. One of them is that two devices must work serially. Other one is there must be enough time waiting between serialization. On the block diagram, we see these points clearly.

1.SETTING UP HARDWARE & REFERANCE OBJECTS

Connection between laboratory instruments is supplied with GPIB cables. An USB GPIB is used to connect laptop to instruments. Network analyzer and turntable controller are connected to each other. USB side of USB GPIB is connected to laptop and the other side is connected to one of the instruments. Some coaxial cables and many connectors are used. Coaxial cables are supplied connection between instruments and antennas. Connectors are used to connection between different types of inputs.

Fig.29 (Coaxial cable)

Fig.30 (Connector)

Fig.31 (Connector)

Figure 32 (Connection instrument and cable)

Fig.33 (GPIB cable)

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For the measurement, we used two horn antennas whose specifications are the same. These whose two antennas are attached to a handmade wood board by side by side. Tripods metal parts are covered with isolator. The network analyzer was located into the anechoic chamber because of weak power and also it was covered with isolator. For adjusting the object and antennas directivity, we turned antennas symmetrically by using laser pointer.

Fig.34 (Antennas ar ready for measurement) are During the project time, we could measure 4 types of objects; 1.) Sphere (steel-clad) with diameter 15cm clad) 2.) Plate (brass) with 10X10cm size 3.) Plate (brass) with 15X15cm size 4.) Plate (steel) with 15X15 size 15X15cm

Fig.34 (Sphere (steel-clad) with diameter 15cm) clad)

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Fig.34 (Plate (brass) with 10x10cm size)

Fig.34 (Plate (steel) with 15x15 size) 15x15cm

Fig.34 (Plate (brass) with 15x15cm size)

2. BUILDING VIs a)Network Analyzer SubVI SubVIs

Our network analyzer is Agilent/HP 8720D and its necessary visa drivers are found on the library of National Instruments web web-site. Network analyzer SubVI consists of two main section, configuration and control. Network Analyzer Configuration V VIs

Figure 3 ( (Network Analyzer Configuration VIs)

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Network analyzer configuration VIs consists of 4 subVIs. After the initialization, we set up a wait block because turn table must stop totally. Then, network analyzer go on processing such as set format, set meas and set sweep.

Figure 4 (Inner parts of the Initialization subVI)

Figure 5 (Inner parts of the Set Format subVI)

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Figure 6 (Inner parts of the Set Meas subVI)

Figure 7 (Inner parts of the Set Sweep subVI)

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Network Analyzer Control VIs

Figure 8 (Network Analyzer Control VIs) Network analyzer configuration VI consists of one subVI that is collect data. Lower part of the figure shows the measured data on the screen. Upper side of the figure shows the frequency, S21 values and degree are written in a text file.

NOTE: The device driver can be found on the web site of National Instruments at the LabVIEW developer zone.

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b)Turn Table SubVI SubVIs

Our turntable is a product of Innco Systems, Germany. A controller called CO 2000 and produced by Innco systems is used for controlling the turntable. CO 2000 controller has a GPIB port so we use this port for communication. Its default GPIB address is 7 and this number is used in the program. Two main subVIs are generated. One of them is for configuration, the other one is for manipulation. Turntable Configuration VI Left side of VI includes controls and the right side includes indicators/connection nodes. We choose the GPIB address of turntable for VISA session control. Start, Stop and Step size are entered by user in degree and user enters the turning speed of turntable in a range from 1 to 8. When we look at the right side, we see a VISA resource name out, this indicator shows us which visa address is used in the vi. TF (True-False) case helps us determining the rotation False) direction of turntable (clockwise or counter clockwise). Start, stop and step size buffers show the values of initially determine determined.

Figure 17 (inner part of turntable configuration VI, it has also four different subVIs)

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Figure 18 (initialize VI of turntable configuration VI)

Figure 19 (Speed Control subVI of turntable configuration VI)

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Figure 20 (This subVI makes turntable to go to desired degree)

Turntable control VI This VI is used for only counter clockwise turning when star degree is less than stop degree.

Figure 21 ( (Counter Clockwise turning subVI) Note: All of the string commands can be found between the pages 35 and 43 in the service manual of Innco Systems.
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C) MEASUREMENTS
RCS measurement can be divided into outdoor and indoor according to the different field. The outdoor measurement is easily influenced by weather. It is difficult to get high resolution and accurate results. On contraries, the indoor measurement can provide a controlled electromagnetic circumstance, and researchers can work in a comfortable place. Moreover, more accurate results can be gained with less cost. It also save one third of time in comparison of the outdoor measurement. We did all measurements in the anechoic chamber of YTE- Wireless Center and the measurement system has been explained in the previous part.

1. CALIBRATION OF NETWORK ANALYZER

Network analyzer must be calibrated to get accurate and stable results. For calibration, we used Agilent 3.5mm Economic Calibration Kit and two connectors. Firstly, calibration menu button is pushed, calibration kit type and full two port calibration tab are chosen. One of these ports is forward the other one is reverse port. We use an open circuit, a short circuit and 50 load for both reverse and forward ports. Then we connect these ports with the broadband load. Then, omit isolation tab is chosen from main calibration menu. After these operations finish, analyzer calculates the coefficients in a few seconds. Finally, Save/Recall button is pushed to save the calibration. For recalling a saved calibration, we push Save/Recall button again and chose the wanted calibration.

2. CALCULATION OF RCS VALUES

Measured values (S21) does not directly give exact rcs values because this measured values contain both noise and rcs of chamber . Therefore; to get exact rcs values we must subtract the noise and reduce the effect of rcs of chamber from measured values. According to this claim, RCS values can be calculated by the formula given below:

where, dBsm is the RCS of target, dBsm is the RCS of scaling, S21,S21 are the measured value of target and scaling.
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PLATE 10X10 E-PLANE Frequency (GHz) 8 8,5 9 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -42,541 -43,785 -43,09 -40,882 -40,619 -42,962 -40,477 -39,337 -38,326 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -42,885 -43,446 -42,356 -39,448 -39,832 -41,671 -38,201 -37,619 -37,068 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -43,488 -44,068 -42,333 -39,654 -40,418 -42,32 -38,525 -37,968 -37,544 Average Values (dBsm) -42,97 -43,77 -42,59 -40 -40,29 -42,32 -39,08 -38,31 -37,65

PLATE 10X10 H-PLANE Frequency (GHz) 8 8,5 9 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -41,129 -46,499 -38,711 -41,7 -38,434 -40,039 -37,159 -37,646 -42,867 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -41,086 -46,704 -38,784 -41,647 -38,409 -40,11 -37,243 -37,567 -42,849 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -41,444 -45,982 -39,756 -41,553 -38,46 -40,509 -37,615 -38,43 -42,407 Average Values (dBsm) -41,22 -46,39 -39,08 -41,63 -38,43 -40,22 -37,34 -37,88 -42,71

PLATE 15X15 E-PLANE Frequency (GHz) 8 8,5 9 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -36,586 -35,944 -34,28 -34,637 -35,109 -35,18 -32,962 -33,172 -34,48 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -36,412 -34,74 -34,024 -33,808 -33,922 -33,521 -31,924 -32,233 -33,074 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -36,773 -34,905 -34,103 -34,082 -34,31 -33,76 -32,315 -32,647 -33,923 Average Values (dBsm) -36,59 -35,2 -34,14 -34,18 -34,45 -34,15 -32,4 -32,68 -33,82

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PLATE 15X15 H-PLANE Frequency (GHz) 8 8,5 9 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -34,36 -35,146 -33,076 -34,879 -32,827 -32,594 -31,551 -32,498 -35,299 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -33,933 -34,937 -32,525 -34,462 -32,321 -32,151 -31,156 -31,691 -34,696 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -34,122 -35,192 -32,764 -34,452 -32,243 -32,413 -31,025 -32,123 -34,813 Average Values (dBsm) -34,14 -35,09 -32,79 -34,6 -32,46 -32,39 -31,24 -32,11 -34,94

EMPTY E-PLANE Frequency (GHz) 8 8,5 9 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -48,7848 -51,5067 -46,5181 -51,5033 41,7938 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -48,3674 -46,8128 -50,9618 -57,7815 -46,6762 -44,5964 -51,3084 -53,7737 -41,7178 Measured S21 Values (dBsm) -50,2043 -46,1737 -51,7687 -63,8642 -47,4534 -44,3754 -49,9068 -57,2195 -42,5419 Average Values (dBsm) -49,119 -46,49 -51,41 -60,02 -46,88 -44,48 -50,91 -55,01 -42,02

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PLATE 15X15 E-PLANE Frequency Calculated S21 Values Measured Average (GHz) (dBsm) S21 Values(dBsm) 8 6,5521 -36,59 8,5 7,0817 -35,2 9 7,5782 -34,14 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 8,0478 8,4933 8,9171 9,3212 9,7073 10,0769 -34,18 -34,45 -34,15 -32,4 -32,68 -33,82 Measured Average Empty S21 Values(dBsm) -49,119 -46,49 -51,41 -60,02 -46,88 -44,48 -50,91 -55,01 -42,02 X=Measured S21-Empty S21 (dBsm) 12,53 11,29 17,27 25,84 12,43 10,33 18,51 22,33 8,2 X-Calculated S21 (dBsm) 5,98 4,21 9,69 17,79 3,94 1,41 9,19 12,62 -1,88

PLATE 10X10 E-PLANE Frequency Calculated S21 Values Measured Average (GHz) (dBsm) S21 Values(dBsm) 8 -0,4885 -42,97 8,5 0,0381 -43,77 9 0,5345 -42,59 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 1,0042 1,4497 1,8735 2,2775 2,6636 3,0333 -40 -40,29 -42,32 -39,08 -38,31 -37,65 Measured Average Empty S21 Values(dBsm) -49,119 -46,49 -51,41 -60,02 -46,88 -44,48 -50,91 -55,01 -42,02 X=Measured S21-Empty S21 X-Calculated S21 (dBsm) (dBsm) 6,15 6,64 2,72 2,68 8,82 8,29 20,02 6,59 2,16 11,83 16,7 4,37 19,02 5,14 0,29 9,55 14,04 1,34

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COMPARE PLATE 10X10 AND 15X15 E E-PLANE Frequency (GHz) 8 8,5 9 9,5 10 10,5 11 11,5 12 Z1=X-Calculated S21 for 10x10 (dBsm) 6,64 2,68 8,29 19,02 5,14 0,29 9,55 14,04 1,34 Z2=X-Calculated S21 Z2=X for 15x15 (dBsm) 5,98 4,21 9,69 17,79 3,94 1,41 9,19 12,62 -1,88 Constant or RCS of Chamber (Average Z1&Z2)(dBsm) -6,31 -3,45 -8,99 -18,41 -4,54 -0,85 -9,37 -13,33 0,27 Deviation ((Z1-Z2)/2) (dBsm) 0,33 0,76 0,7 0,62 0,6 0,56 0,18 0,71 0,95

According to our measurements exact values and calculated values are almost same. The difference is 1dbsm and this difference is caused from not being provided far 1dbsm far-field conditions.

3. ANALYZING OF COLLECTED DATA

All measurements are done at X X-Band (8-12GHz) and more than ten times to get average values according to position, frequency and polarization. We expect that RCS value will be peak at 0 degree for plate and does not change for the sphere because the RCS of a sphere is independent of frequency. We observed our measurement on graphs that were drawn according to 1 degree step size from -90 degree to 90 degree as we see below. 90

This figure shows us angle dependency of RCS where two antennas were H plane. We can hows observe that while RCS of sphere is almost constant, plate has a peak at 0 degree for 11 GHz. k

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Here, we compared two different sized plates that are 15x15 and 10x10 for 11 GHz. We can obviously see that RCS value changes according to size of the object and plate with large size has higher RCS values that small sized one. her

This figure shows us how RCS value changes according to different polarization. White graph represents E plane measurement where both two antennas are horizontal position. Red graph represents H plane measurement where two antennas are vertical position. E and H where plane RCS values are almost same because of the directivity and gain specifications of used antennas.

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We try to observe the effect of different polarized antennas where one of them is E plane and other one is H plane. The RCS value is lowest at 0 degree because E cross H gives 0 and for other degrees, RCS can change because plate is not perpendicular to antennas directivity and there should be some cosine values. T result of this measurement is shown above The above.

Our ambition for this figure is that whether RCS value is increasing or not if frequency increases. We see zoomed form of the figure at the right and clearly see that RCS value increases if frequency increases.

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D) CONCLUSION
The importance of stealth technology has been increasing due to the its 'great advantage day by day . Having information about RCS values that is the indicator of this technology is as important as having the technology. So many commercial RCS measurement systems are designed by researchers at both companies and universities. For determining the rcs values of objects we are also designed and constructed a bistatic radar cross section measurement system. In this project, we only measured RCS of reference objects and generated a calibration table at X-band for horizontal and vertical polarizations because of the many physical problems such as need of a high frequency power amplifier or professional antenna holders and pressure of time. We had only one term for constructing the system. On the other hand, according to our data analyze, our results are acceptable and reliable due to the 1 dbsm difference between theoretical RCS values and measured values.

Finally, calibration tables that are got thanks to this project can/must be used for measuring for more complex objects. We can decrease the sensitivity of the system by using a power amplifier and a professional antenna holder. Software of the system can make be more useful by integrating measurement and data analyze interfaces.

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E) REFERENCES
Books 1. BISHOP, ROBERT H. , LABVIEW STUDENT EDITION 6I, NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS 2. SKOLNIK, MERRILL I,RADAR HANDBOOK, SECOND EDT. MC GRAW HILL 3. KNOTT, E. F., SHAEFFER, J. F., TULEY, M. T., 2004, RADAR CROSS SECTON (2nd EDITION), SCITECH PUBLISHING 4. BALANIS, CONSTANTIN A., ANTENNA THEORY AND DESIGN, THIRD EDITION, WILEYINTERNATINAL Papers 1. C.F. HU, J.D. XU, N.J. L, L.X. ZHANG, LOW FREQUENCY RCS MEASUREMENT SYSTEM IN ANECHOIC CHAMBER,CHINA MARCH 2010 2. HP 8720D OPERATION MANUAL 3. AGILENT ANTENNA AND RCS MEASUREMENT CONFIGURATIONS USING PNA MICROWAVE NETWORK ANALYZERS 4. ANTENNA MEASUREMENTS, RCS MEASUREMENTS AND MEASUREMENTS ON PULSEDIGNALS WITH VECTOR NETWORK ANALYZERS R&S ZVM, R&S ZVK,APPLCATON NOTE 5. ANECHOIC CHAMBER MEASUREMENT IMPOROVEMENT, MICROWAVE JOURNAL, MARCH 2006 6. ERGN, A. ARF, GRNMEZLK TEKNOLOJLER, IDEF07 NO:120 7. B. K. CHUNG, H. T. CHUAH AND JONATHAN W. BREDOD A MICROWAVE ANECHOIC CHAMBER FOR RADAR-CROSS SECTION MEASUREMENT, IEEE ANTENNAS AND PROPAGATION MAGAZINE, VOL. 39, NO. 3, JUNE 1997 8. AYANLI, HALT, DEVELOPMENT OF A GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE (GUI) APPLICATION FOR RADAR CROSS SECTION (RCS) PREDICTION OF ARBITRARILY SHAPED OBJECTS, M.S. THESIS, 2007

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Web-Sites 1. http://zone.ni.com/dzhp/app/main (NI LabVIEW Developer Zone)

2. Radar Cross Section, http://www.earth2.net/parts/mugu/rcs.pdf

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