PFI:AIR - TT: Improving Performance and Reducing Costs for Phased Array Weather Radar

PFI:AIR - TT：提高相控阵天气雷达的性能并降低成本

• 批准号: 1500097
• 负责人: Stephen Frasier
• 金额: $ 19.94万
• 依托单位: University of Massachusetts Amherst
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-04-01 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1500097&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: PFI; AIR; TT; Improving; Performance

This PFI: AIR Technology Translation project focuses on translating a technique to correct polarization errors in phased-array antennas enabling their use in dual polarization weather radar applications. The Interleaved Sparse Array (ISA) technique is important because it augments the enhanced scanning capabilities of phased-array radar and may lead to cheaper and smaller weather radars with appropriate accuracy in places where traditional weather radars are cost- and space-prohibitive. This can lead to the preservation of human life, better management of agriculture, and better preparedness for weather-related events. The project will result in a proof-of-concept demonstration of the ISA technique that will enable dual-polarization phased-array weather radars to achieve necessary polarization purity for weather and hydrological applications in a cost-effective manner. In phased-array antennas, each element of the array not only radiates its requested polarization, but also emits an unwanted cross-polarized signal. The ISA technique is a correction that is applied after manufacturing and switches the polarization of some of the antenna elements in order to cancel the cross-polarized signal of the remainder of the array, or to adjust the overall radiated polarization. To do so, the antenna elements need to be characterized to determine the number and position of the elements to be switched. This project addresses how to cost effectively characterize the antenna elements and how to evaluate the resulting performance so that ISA may be applied to commercial products. In addition to the technical work, personnel involved in this project, including a postdoctoral student, will conduct literature and patent searches related to prior art, work with the university technology office on protecting any intellectual property generated, develop marketing collateral, and work with industrial collaborators and other potential licensees on identifying first adopters of the technology for prototype demonstrations.

该PFI：空气技术翻译项目着重于翻译一种技术以纠正分阶段阵列天线中的极化错误，从而可以在双极化天气雷达应用中使用。 交织的稀疏阵列（ISA）技术很重要，因为它增强了分阶段阵列雷达的扫描功能的增强，并且在传统天气雷达的成本和太空良好的地方，可能会导致更便宜和较小的天气雷达，并具有适当的准确性。 这可以导致维护人类生活，更好地管理农业，并为与天气有关的事件做好准备。 该项目将导致ISA技术的概念验证证明，该证明将使双极分阶段的阵列天气雷达以具有成本效益的方式实现天气和水文应用的必要极化纯度。在阶梯式阵列天线中，阵列的每个元素不仅辐射其所需的极化，而且发出了不需要的交叉偏振信号。 ISA技术是一种在制造后应用的校正，并切换了某些天线元件的极化，以取消阵列其余部分的交叉偏振信号，或调整整体辐射极化。 为此，需要对天线元素进行表征，以确定要切换的元素的数量和位置。 该项目介绍了如何有效地表征天线元素的成本以及如何评估结果性能，以便将ISA应用于商业产品。 除了技术工作外，包括博士后学生在内的参与该项目的人员还将进行与先前艺术有关的文献和专利搜索，与大学技术办公室合作，以保护生成的任何知识产权，开发营销营销人员，并与工业合作者和其他潜在的持牌人合作，以确定原型示范技术的首次采用者。