Design and performance of wideband DRFM for radar test and evaluation

The test and evaluation of modern radars using hardware in the loop simulators requires the use of wideband high-fidelity, digital radio frequency memories (DRFM) in order to generate realistic target returns. Important aspects of wideband DRFM design on a printed circuit board are highighted and the architecture of the DRFM that was implemented using commercial-off-the-shelf components is presented. The spurious free dynamic range of the DRFM was characterised as −47 dBc worst case over an instantaneous bandwidth of 800 MHz. An experimental pulse-Doppler radar was used to compare the fidelity of the returns from the DRFM and an optical delay line.