Vibration Isolated & Spectrally Pure Synthesizer based Exciter for an Airborne Radar

Requirements for improved airborne radar performance in terms of increased dynamic range, target detection, sensitivity and operational flexibility necessitates the achievement of improved spectral purity in the microwave transmitter and receiver local oscillator signals. Apart from generating these two low phase noise microwave signals, an exciter provides additional waveforms required in the radar. In this paper, the design and realization of a vibration isolated low phase noise X-Band synthesizer based exciter of an airborne radar is presented. The specifications for the exciter are derived from the system requirements, within the weight and volume constraints of the system. Basic configuration, simulation and measured results of the exciter are presented.