Abstract:

 According to the characteristics of the multiple function requirements and mass data processing in modern radar system, an efficient frequency-domain pulse compression approach with multiple working modes based on field programmable gate array (FPGA) is proposed. In this approach, the fast Fourier transform (FFT) is realized by a compound FFT architecture whose computing power is two times of radix-4 Burst I/O architecture’s and the reference signal is timely created by the LUT method depending on the basic parameters of the transmitted signal. The pulse compression module is encapsulated in intellectual property (IP) core so that it can be configured flexibly to meet the requirements of the multiple working modes and easy transplantation. The experimental results based on the Virtex-7 FPGA hardware platform show that from 8192 to 32768 points the compression is efficiently realized with excellent real-time characteristics. In addition, the processing results of the approach can meet the requirements of the aerospace engineering practice.

Key words: Satellite payload, FPGA, Pulse compression, Compound FFT architecture, Real time processing