Ka-Band seeker with adaptive beam forming using MEMS phase shifters

The future operational scope of seeker heads for surface to air and air to air applications require highest precision in order to achieve direct hits, while ECM resistance and high agility in terms of beam steering must be realised simultaneously. These requirements can be met using a Ka-band radar seeker with an electronically steered antenna. Such an electronically directed antenna beam also give other the improvements compared with conventional radars: it is possible to perform an adaptive antenna beam forming based on antenna sub group transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) channels or even adjusting all the single antenna transceiver elements. This put us into a position to use algorithms of super resolution in order to recognise and localise jammer sources, also during target acquisition and tracking. Jammer sources can furthermore suppressed by application of adaptive beam forming algorithms. This paper describes such a Ka-Band radar seeker which was designed and will be prototyped in the framework of a national research and technology study. The electronically steered antenna is realised using phase shifters in MEMS technology, which are not only much cheaper than active Tx/Rx elements but also can be realised in very small packages strongly required by the small wavelength and the resulting small distances between the radiating elements.