RFSoC-based design and implementation of a Direct RF FMCW radar altimeter

This paper presents the design and performance of a Direct RF Sampling Radar Altimeter based on the RFSoC from Xilinx. This architecture removes the mixing stage by sampling directly from the RF band of interest. The laboratory tests, conducted with certified equipment (Alt-8000), demonstrate that the proposed design meets the accuracy standards set by RTCA's DO-155. In addition, this work highlights some challenges and design consideration that comes with this technique.