Active Radar Calibrator Electronics for RISAT-1

This paper presents the details of design and development of Active Radar Calibrator Electronics for RISAT-1. Active Radar Calibrators are ground based point targets, having wide range of controllable and stable radar cross section in small physical size, required for active microwave imaging sensors. It is easily deployable in remote areas for the calibration of all polarization channels unlike its passive counterparts. The electronics of active radar calibrator at C-band is designed, developed and presented, having gain variability of 4dB to 45dB in steps of 1 dB and of maximum linear transmit output power of +20dBm.