High power radar implementation of coherent waveforms

The radar use of coherent burst waveforms to obtain clutter suppression is summarized and problems arising from the high power implementation of such waveforms are discussed. These problems arise from the nonlinear nature of the typical high power radar transmitter and result in loss of subpulse-to-subpulse amplitude and phase accuracies, causing clutter suppression degradation. An adaptive control loop used to measure transmission errors and to provide continuous updating to minimize such errors is proposed. Residual transmission errors resulting via use of the control loop are calculated and shown to have an insignificant effect upon the clutter suppression properties of the coherent waveform. Experimental verification of control loop performance is presented.