Full-airspace searching and tracking radar system

Abstract

The utility model discloses a full-airspace searching and tracking radar system, relates to the technical field of digital antennas, and is characterized in that the full-airspace searching and tracking radar system comprises a digital antenna array and a processor; the digital antenna array comprises a plurality of first area arrays and a plurality of second area arrays; the plurality of first area arrays and the plurality of second area arrays are spliced with each other along each side to form a digital antenna array with a sphere-like structure; the processor is connected with the digital antenna array; and the processor is used for controlling the working states of the target first area array and the target second area array so as to enable the digital antenna array to execute a searching working mode, a tracking working mode or a searching and tracking working mode. According to the full-airspace searching and tracking radar system, full-airspace coverage can be achieved, full-airspace searching and tracking capabilities are achieved, and searching and tracking of targets in different directions are achieved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The utility model relates to the technical field of radar, and particularly relates to an all-airspace search and tracking radar system. Background Art

[0002] This section aims to provide background or context for the embodiments described in the claims. The descriptions herein are not admitted to be prior art by including them in this section.

[0003] Radar is used to detect and track targets approaching or entering low altitudes, such as enemy aircraft, missiles, and other flying vehicles. By real-time monitoring the position, speed, and altitude information of the targets, the defense system can take timely actions to intercept threats. Radars with digital array systems have a wide dynamic range, good weak target detection capabilities, and strong anti-interference capabilities; however, when the scale of the all-digital array system is large, it has the disadvantage of high cost.

[0004] Conventional radars use a system combining planar array mechanical scanning and electronic scanning to achieve coverage of the entire 360° airspace, but they cannot simultaneously achieve search and tracking of the entire airspace including overhead targets, and also have the disadvantage of low data rate, unable to balance search and tracking. If a multi-planar array system is used, its radiation pattern is severely distorted at large scanning angles, with problems such as large antenna gain loss and decreased accuracy, and there are problems with discontinuous coverage. Summary of the Utility Model

[0005] In view of the above technical problems, the present utility model provides an all-airspace search and tracking radar system, which can achieve all-airspace coverage, has the capabilities of all-airspace search and tracking, and realizes search and tracking of targets in different directions.

[0006] To solve the above technical problems, the technical solution adopted by the present utility model is: providing an all-airspace search and tracking radar system, including:

[0007] A digital antenna array; the digital antenna array includes a plurality of first planar arrays and a plurality of second planar arrays; the plurality of first planar arrays and second planar arrays are spliced along their respective sides to form a quasi-spherical structure.

[0008] And a processor connected to the digital antenna array; the processor is used to control the working state of the target planar array in the digital antenna array so that the digital antenna array executes a search working mode, a tracking working mode, or a search plus tracking working mode.

[0009] In some embodiments, the first planar array is a regular hexagonal planar array; the second planar array is a regular pentagonal planar array.

[0010] In some embodiments, the total number of the first planar arrays and the second planar arrays is 31; the number of the first planar arrays is 25 or 26; the number of the second planar arrays is 6 or 5.

[0011] In some embodiments, both the first planar array and the second planar array include a plurality of mutually spliced regular polygon analog sub-arrays.

[0012] In some embodiments, the processor includes an analog sub-array beamforming module, a first-stage digital beamforming module, and a second-stage digital beamforming module;

[0013] The analog sub-array beamforming module is used to complete analog beam synthesis in the analog sub-array;

[0014] The first-stage digital beamforming module is used to perform digital beam synthesis on a plurality of analog sub-arrays of the first planar array and the second planar array to form a wide beam in the search state;

[0015] The second-stage digital beamforming module is used to perform digital beam synthesis on a plurality of first planar arrays and second planar arrays to form a narrow beam in the target tracking state.

[0016] In some embodiments, the digital antenna array further includes a top planar array and a plurality of first planar array rings and second planar array rings that are mutually spliced from top to bottom; the first planar array ring is composed of a plurality of first planar arrays at the same horizontal height, and the second planar array ring is composed of a plurality of second planar arrays at the same horizontal height;

[0017] Wherein, both the first planar array ring and the second planar array ring can achieve 0° to 360° coverage in the horizontal direction.

[0018] In some embodiments, the number of layers of the planar array ring is six; each layer of the planar array ring includes five first planar arrays or five second planar arrays; the inclination angles of the multiple planar array rings with the horizontal plane are sequentially set from top to bottom as: 37.7°, 63.4°, 79.2°, 90°, 90°, and 90°.

[0019] In some embodiments, the number of layers of the planar array ring is five; each layer of the planar array ring includes six first planar arrays or five second planar arrays; the inclination angles of the multiple planar array rings with the horizontal plane are sequentially set from top to bottom as: 30°, 51°, 60°, 79°, and 90°.

[0020] In some embodiments, the analog sub-array is a hexagonal sub-array; the analog sub-array includes a plurality of analog TR components, and the plurality of analog TR components are subjected to up-conversion and down-conversion processing after multi-channel radio frequency analog synthesis.

[0021] In some embodiments, the analog sub-array is a regular hexagon sub-array; the number of analog TR components in the analog sub-array is 19, and they are evenly arranged to form a regular hexagon.

[0022] Compared with the prior art, one or more embodiments of the above solution may have the following advantages or beneficial effects:

[0023] The present application provides an all-airspace search and tracking radar system. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system includes a digital antenna array; the digital antenna array includes a plurality of first planar arrays and a plurality of second planar arrays; the plurality of first planar arrays and second planar arrays are spliced along their respective sides to form a quasi-spherical structure; and a processor connected to the digital antenna array; the processor is configured to control the working state of the target planar array in the digital antenna array so that the digital antenna array executes a search working mode, a tracking working mode, or a search plus tracking working mode. By using a quasi-spherical planar array formed by splicing the first planar array and the second planar array, it has the ability of all-airspace search and tracking, and can be compatible to simultaneously realize the search and tracking of targets in different directions; by using standard analog sub-arrays to splice the first planar array and the second planar array, it has good producibility; at the same time, by adopting a hybrid design of multi-stage analog beam and digital beam synthesis, it is convenient to flexibly switch the working mode. Furthermore, it can realize the rapid search of the all-airspace through the wide transmit and wide receive working mode, and realize the high-precision tracking of the target through the synthesis of multiple planar arrays to form a narrow transmit and narrow receive beam, and has flexible digital array beam forming ability. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0024] Hereinafter, the present application will be described in more detail based on embodiments with reference to the drawings;

[0025] Figure 1 It is a schematic connection diagram of the digital antenna array and the processor of the all-airspace search and tracking radar system in the embodiment of the present application;

[0026] Figure 2 It is a schematic structural diagram of the digital antenna array of the radar system in the first embodiment of the present application;

[0027] Figure 3 For the radar system in the first embodiment of the present application, the digital antenna array corresponds to Figure 2 The top view structural diagram;

[0028] Figure 4 It is a schematic layout structural diagram of the analog sub-array of the second planar array in the embodiment of the present application;

[0029] Figure 5 It is a schematic layout structural diagram of the analog sub-array of the first planar array in the embodiment of the present application;

[0030] Figure 6Schematic diagram of the layout structure of the analog TR components of the analog subarray in the embodiments of the present application;

[0031] Figures 7 - 8 Pattern of the analog subarray in the embodiments of the present application;

[0032] Figure 9 Schematic diagram of the connection relationship between each module of the processor and the digital antenna array in the embodiments of the present application;

[0033] Figure 10 Effect diagram of beam synthesis with five first planar arrays and one second planar array in the embodiments of the present application;

[0034] Figures 11 - 12 Antenna pattern of the digital antenna array in the embodiments of the present application;

[0035] Figure 13 Schematic diagram of the structure of the digital antenna array of the radar system in the second embodiment of the present application;

[0036] Figure 14 In the second embodiment of the present application, the digital antenna array of the radar system corresponds to Figure 8 Top view structure diagram;

[0037] In the figure: 1. Digital antenna array; 11. First planar array; 12. Second planar array; 13. Top planar array; 14. First planar array ring; 15. Second planar array ring; 2. Processor; 21. Analog subarray beamforming module; 22. First-level digital beamforming module; 23. Second-level digital beamforming module; 3. Analog subarray; 31. Analog TR component.

[0038] In the drawings, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the drawings are not drawn to actual scale. Detailed implementation manners

[0039] In order to enable those skilled in the art to better understand the technical solutions of the present disclosure, and to fully understand how the present disclosure uses technical means to solve technical problems and achieve the corresponding technical effects, and to implement accordingly, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present disclosure, rather than all the embodiments. The embodiments of the present disclosure and each feature in the embodiments can be combined with each other without conflict, and the formed technical solutions are all within the protection scope of the present disclosure. Based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art without creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

[0040] It should be noted that the terms "first", "second", etc. in the description, claims and above-mentioned drawings of the present disclosure are used to distinguish similar objects, and do not necessarily describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data used in this way can be interchanged under appropriate circumstances, so that the embodiments of the present disclosure described herein can be implemented in an order other than those illustrated or described herein. In addition, the terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusion. For example, a process, method, system, product or device comprising a series of steps or units does not necessarily limit to those steps or units clearly listed, but may include other steps or units not clearly listed or inherent to these processes, methods, products or devices.

[0041] Embodiment 1:

[0042] The embodiment of the present disclosure provides an all-airspace search and tracking radar system, as Figure 1 and Figure 2 shown. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system includes a digital antenna array 1 and a processor 2 connected to the digital antenna array 1. Among them, the digital antenna array 1 includes a plurality of first planar arrays 11 and a plurality of second planar arrays 12; the plurality of first planar arrays 11 and the second planar arrays 12 are spliced along their respective sides to form a quasi-spherical structure; the processor 2 is used to control the working state of the target planar array in the digital antenna array 1 so that the digital antenna array 1 executes a search working mode, a tracking working mode, or a search plus tracking working mode. By adopting the quasi-spherical planar array spliced by the first planar array 11 and the second planar array 12, it has the ability of all-airspace search and tracking, can be compatible with the search and tracking of targets in different directions at the same time, and then cooperate with the processor 2 to achieve fast all-airspace search through the wide transmission and wide reception working mode, and form a narrow transmission and narrow reception beam through multi-planar array synthesis to achieve high-precision tracking of the target, and has flexible digital array beamforming ability.

[0043] Furthermore, as Figure 2 and Figure 3 shown, the digital antenna array 1 includes a top planar array 13 and multiple layers of first planar array rings 14 and second planar array rings 15 spliced from top to bottom; the first planar array ring 14 is composed of a plurality of first planar arrays 11 at the same horizontal height, and the second planar array ring 15 is composed of a plurality of second planar arrays 12 at the same horizontal height; among them, both the first planar array ring 14 and the second planar array ring 15 can achieve 0° to 360° coverage in the horizontal direction. Through the cooperation of multiple layers of first planar array rings 14 and second planar array rings 15, combined with the quasi-spherical structure spliced along the edges, the digital antenna array 1 can uniformly cover the all-airspace and improve the all-airspace coverage ability.

[0044] Furthermore, as Figure 2 and Figure 3As shown, the first planar array 11 is a regular hexagon planar array; the second planar array 12 is a regular pentagon planar array; a plurality of first planar arrays 11 and the second planar array 12 are spliced along their respective sides to form a football-shaped quasi-spherical structure, thereby forming a direction pattern with a smooth transition in azimuth, further improving the comprehensiveness of full-airspace coverage.

[0045] In this embodiment, the total number of the first planar arrays 11 and the second planar arrays 12 in the digital antenna array 1 is 31. For scenarios with high requirements for low-altitude coverage, 26 first planar arrays 11 of regular hexagons and 5 second planar arrays 12 of regular pentagons are used for splicing to form the digital antenna array 1. In this structure, the number of layers of the planar array ring is determined to be six; each layer of the planar array ring includes five first planar arrays 11 or five second planar arrays 12; the inclination angles of the multi-layer planar array rings with respect to the horizontal plane are sequentially set as: 37.7°, 63.4°, 79.2°, 90°, 90°, and 90° from top to bottom.

[0046] Specifically, in the digital antenna array 1, the top planar array 13 is set with the first planar array 11, the second-layer planar array ring is arranged with the first planar array ring 14, the third-layer planar array ring is arranged with the second planar array ring 15, and the fourth-layer to sixth-layer planar array rings are all arranged with the first planar array ring 14, so as to concentrate most of the array surface energy in the low elevation angle airspace, which is suitable for scenarios with high requirements for low-altitude coverage.

[0047] In some embodiments, as Figure 4 and Figure 5 shown, both the first planar array 11 and the second planar array 12 include a plurality of mutually spliced regular polygon analog sub-arrays 3. In this embodiment, the analog sub-array 3 is a regular hexagon, so that the standard analog sub-array 3 is used to form the first planar array 11 and the second planar array 12, which is convenient for standardized production and use and has good producibility. Among them, the first planar array 11 is composed of 21 hexagonal analog sub-arrays 3, and the total number of channels is 399; the second planar array 12 is composed of 10 hexagonal analog sub-arrays 3, and the total number of channels is 190.

[0048] Furthermore, as Figure 6 shown, the analog sub-array 3 includes a plurality of analog TR components 31, and the plurality of analog TR components 31 are subjected to up-conversion and down-conversion processing after being synthesized by multi-channel radio frequency analog. The analog sub-array 3 is composed of 19 analog TR components 31, and the 19 analog TR components 31 are evenly arranged to form a regular hexagon. Specifically, the 19 analog TR components 31 are divided into five layers for even arrangement, with 3 analog TR components 31 as the first layer, 4 analog TR components 31 as the second layer, 5 analog TR components 31 as the third layer, 4 analog TR components 31 as the fourth layer, and 3 analog TR components 31 as the fifth layer for arrangement, finally forming a regular hexagon analog sub-array 3, as Figure 7 andFigure 8 The radiation pattern of the analog sub-array 3 shown, this arrangement enables the radiation pattern of the analog sub-array to have good omnidirectional uniformity, facilitating digital beamforming.

[0049] In some embodiments, such as Figure 1 and Figure 9 shown, the processor 2 includes an analog sub-array beamforming module 21, a first-stage digital beamforming module 22, and a second-stage digital beamforming module 23;

[0050] The analog sub-array beamforming module 21 is used to complete analog beamforming in the analog sub-array 3;

[0051] The first-stage digital beamforming module 22 is used to perform digital beamforming on multiple analog sub-arrays 3 of the first planar array 11 and the second planar array 12 to form a wide beam in the search state;

[0052] The second-stage digital beamforming module 23 is used to perform digital beamforming on multiple first planar arrays 11 and second planar arrays 12 to form a narrow beam in the target tracking state.

[0053] By dividing the whole machine beamforming into three levels, where the 0-level beamforming is performed by the analog sub-array beamforming module 21 for analog beamforming; the 1-level beamforming is performed by the first-stage digital beamforming module 22 using digital beamforming technology to complete the beamforming of multiple analog sub-arrays 3 of the pentagon / hexagon planar array, forming a wide beam in the search state; the 2-level beamforming is performed by the second-stage digital beamforming module 23 using digital beamforming technology to complete the digital beamforming of multiple planar arrays, forming a narrow beam for target tracking. Through the analog-digital hybrid array with three-level beamforming, it can have a flexible beamforming ability, and then can achieve fast search of the entire airspace through the wide transmit and wide receive working mode, and achieve high-precision tracking of the target by forming a narrow transmit and narrow receive beam through multi-planar array synthesis.

[0054] When in the search working mode, the processor 2 controls the digital antenna array 1 to adopt the wide transmit and wide receive working method, that is, each first planar array 11 or second planar array 12 independently transmits and receives at different working frequencies, while completing the coverage of the entire airspace, and allocates the energy of the entire array by reasonably distributing the search airspace of each layer of the planar array. Specifically as follows in the table:

[0055] Table 1 Search Airspace Coverage Design

[0056]

[0057]

[0058] When operating in the tracking mode, the processor 2 controls the digital antenna array 1 to adopt a narrow transmit and narrow receive operating form. Multiple first planar arrays 11 and the second planar arrays 12 cooperate to work in the phased array mode, that is, multiple second planar arrays 12 or first planar arrays 11 perform beam synthesis during both transmission and reception. During the synthesis of multiple planar arrays, with the current planar array as the center, multiple surrounding planar arrays operate in the same frequency and coherent mode to form narrow transmit and receive beams. For example, with the second planar array 12 as the center, 5 first planar arrays 11 + 1 second planar array 12 perform beam synthesis, and the presented effect is as Figures 10 - 12 shown, thereby meeting the requirements of the tracking mode.

[0059] When operating in the full airspace search and tracking mode, the processor 2 controls multiple first planar arrays 11 and second planar arrays 12 in the digital antenna array 1 to be divided into two parts for different operating states. Each first planar array 11 and second planar array 12 in the first part operates independently in the search state for beamforming, and each first planar array 11 and second planar array 12 in the second part performs multi-planar array synthesis in the tracking state to form a beam; when there is an overlap of planar arrays in the area where the tracked target is located, the first planar array 11 or second planar array 12 in the overlap area simultaneously transmits multiple orthogonal waveforms to achieve the multiplexing of planar arrays, thereby achieving high-precision search and tracking of the target.

[0060] The full airspace search and tracking radar system provided by the embodiments of the present disclosure uses a spherical-like planar array formed by splicing the first planar array 11 and the second planar array 12, enabling it to have the capabilities of full airspace search and tracking. Further, a spherical-like planar array in the shape of a football is formed by splicing a regular hexagonal first planar array 11 and a regular pentagonal second planar array 12, further improving the full airspace coverage ability and being able to be compatible to simultaneously achieve the search and tracking of targets in different directions; among them, by using standard analog sub-arrays 3 to splice the first planar array 11 and the second planar array 12, it has good producibility; at the same time, a hybrid design of multi-stage analog beam and digital beam synthesis is adopted, which is convenient for flexible switching of operating modes. Furthermore, it can achieve rapid full airspace search through the wide transmit and wide receive operating mode, and achieve high-precision tracking of the target by forming a narrow transmit and narrow receive beam through multi-planar array synthesis, and has flexible digital array beamforming capabilities.

[0061] Embodiment 2:

[0062] Based on the above embodiments, the difference between this embodiment and Embodiment 1 is that, as Figure 13 and Figure 14As shown, the number of the first planar arrays 11 is 25, and the number of the second planar arrays 12 is 6. Furthermore, the number of layers of the planar array rings of the digital antenna array 1 is set to five; each layer of the planar array ring includes six first planar arrays 11 or five second planar arrays 12; specifically, the first layer of the planar array ring is formed by six first planar arrays 11 spliced along their sides in sequence to form a ring, and the second layer of the planar array ring is composed of six second planar arrays 12; the third to fifth layers of the planar array rings are all composed of six first planar arrays 11. The inclination angles of the multiple layers of the planar array rings with respect to the horizontal plane are sequentially set as: 30°, 51°, 60°, 79°, and 90° from top to bottom, so that the energy of each planar array is evenly distributed in the full elevation angle range, which is applicable to the scenario of uniform coverage of the entire airspace and has good overhead coverage ability.

[0063] When the digital antenna array 1 is in the search mode formed by the above structure, the processor 2 controls the digital antenna array 1 to use the wide transmit and wide receive working mode, that is, each first planar array 11 or second planar array 12 independently transmits and receives at different working frequencies, and simultaneously completes the coverage of the entire airspace. Except for the top array, 30 planar arrays are divided into 5 layers, with 6 planar arrays in each layer. From top to bottom, the inclination angles of each planar array are: 30°, 51°, 60°, 80°, 90°. The search airspace of each layer of the planar array is reasonably allocated as follows:

[0064] Table 2 Search Airspace Coverage Design

[0065] Number of layers Area array type Plane angle Vertical elevation angle Azimuth coverage Elevation coverage Top layer Hexagon 0 90 360° 60°～90° 1 layer Hexagon 30 60 ±30° 35°～60° 2 layers Pentagon 51 40 ±30° 30°～35° 3 layers Hexagon 60 30 ±30° 20～30° 4 layers Hexagon 80 10 ±30° 10～20 5 layers Hexagon 90 0 ±30° 0～10

[0066] Through the digital antenna array with this structure, the energy of each planar array can be evenly distributed in the full elevation angle range, which is applicable to the scenario of uniform coverage of the entire airspace and has good overhead coverage ability.

[0067] Each embodiment in this disclosure is described in a progressive manner. For the same or similar parts among the embodiments, reference can be made to each other. Each embodiment focuses on the differences from other embodiments.

[0068] The protection scope of this disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments. Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and deformations to this disclosure without departing from the scope and spirit of this disclosure. If these changes and deformations fall within the scope of the claims of this disclosure and their equivalent technologies, the intention of this disclosure also includes these changes and deformations.

Claims

1. An all-airspace search and tracking radar system, characterized in that, Comprising: A digital antenna array; The digital antenna array includes a plurality of first planar arrays and a plurality of second planar arrays; The plurality of first planar arrays and second planar arrays are spliced along their respective sides to form a quasi-spherical structure; And a processor connected to the digital antenna array; The processor is used to control the working state of the target planar array in the digital antenna array so that the digital antenna array executes a search working mode, a tracking working mode, or a search plus tracking working mode.

2. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 1, characterized in that The first planar array is a regular hexagon planar array; the second planar array is a regular pentagon planar array.

3. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 2, characterized in that, The total number of the first planar arrays and second planar arrays is 31; the number of the first planar arrays is 25 or 26; the number of the second planar arrays is 6 or 5.

4. A full-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 1, characterized in that, Both the first planar array and the second planar array include a plurality of mutually spliced regular polygon analog sub-arrays.

5. A full-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 4, characterized in that The processor includes an analog sub-array beamforming module, a first-stage digital beamforming module, and a second-stage digital beamforming module; The analog sub-array beamforming module is used to complete analog beam synthesis in the analog sub-array; The first-stage digital beamforming module is used to perform digital beam synthesis on the plurality of analog sub-arrays of the first planar array and the second planar array to form a wide beam in the search state; The second-stage digital beamforming module is used to perform digital beam synthesis on the plurality of first planar arrays and second planar arrays to form a narrow beam in the target tracking state.

6. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 1, characterized in that The digital antenna array further includes a top planar array and multiple layers of first planar array rings and second planar array rings spliced from top to bottom; the first planar array ring is composed of a plurality of first planar arrays at the same horizontal height, and the second planar array ring is composed of a plurality of second planar arrays at the same horizontal height; Wherein, both the first planar array ring and the second planar array ring can achieve 0° to 360° coverage in the horizontal direction.

7. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 6, characterized in that, The number of layers of the planar array ring is six; each layer of the planar array ring includes five first planar arrays or five second planar arrays; the inclination angles of the multiple layers of the planar array ring with the horizontal plane are sequentially set from top to bottom as: 37.7°, 63.4°, 79.2°, 90°, 90°, and 90°.

8. A full-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 6, characterized in that The number of layers of the planar array ring is five; each layer of the planar array ring includes six first planar arrays or five second planar arrays; the inclination angles of the multiple layers of the planar array ring with the horizontal plane are sequentially set from top to bottom as: 30°, 51°, 60°, 79°, and 90°.

9. The all-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 4, characterized in that, The analog sub-array is a hexagonal sub-array; the analog sub-array includes a plurality of analog TR components, and the plurality of analog TR components are subjected to up-conversion and down-conversion processing after multi-channel radio frequency analog synthesis.

10. A full-airspace search and tracking radar system according to claim 9, characterized in that, The analog sub-array is a regular hexagonal sub-array; the number of analog TR components in the analog sub-array is 19, and they are evenly arranged to form a regular hexagon.

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