Antenna options in radar system design

The radar systems designer has many choices available regarding the antenna. A description is provided of some examples regarding these choices. Aspects of parabolic cylinder vs paraboloid section are considered along with questions of parabolic reflector vs mechanical planar array, solid-state transmitters on or off the antenna, single antenna vs back-to-back antennas, electronically-steered phased array vs mechanically steered antennas, and the choice of frequency for a phased array radar. Attention is also given to conformal electronically-steered arrays vs planar phased arrays, dome antenna vs four planar phased arrays, four fixed phased arrays vs one or two trainable phased arrays, modules per phased array element vs a single transmitter/receiver, lens antenna vs reflector, and electronic vs mechanical antenna stabilization.