X-band SAR imaging with a liquid-crystal-based dynamic metasurface antenna

Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) synthesizes a large effective aperture via coherent processing of multiple measurements taken from a moving platform. We present an approach for SAR imaging using an X-band (10-13.7 GHz) dynamic metasurface antenna (MSA). This newly developed antenna has over 6000 liqu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the Optical Society of America. B, Optical physics Optical physics, 2017-02, Vol.34 (2), p.300-306
Main Authors: Watts, Claire M., Pedross-Engel, Andreas, Smith, David R., Reynolds, Matthew S.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antennas
Apertures
Dynamics
Hardware
Imaging
Platforms
Synthetic aperture radar
X-band
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Summary:Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) synthesizes a large effective aperture via coherent processing of multiple measurements taken from a moving platform. We present an approach for SAR imaging using an X-band (10-13.7 GHz) dynamic metasurface antenna (MSA). This newly developed antenna has over 6000 liquid-crystal-switched radiating elements that cover a circular area with an approximate diameter of 0.45 m. The MSA's main beam can be steered electronically to spherical angles of up to + or -70[degrees]. To the best of our knowledge, we present the first-reported laboratory-scale imaging experiments with a liquid-crystal-switched MSA. We leverage the beam-steering capabilities of the MSA in a spotlight SAR mode to achieve a measured cross-range resolution of 1.6 cm, a 62% improvement over the 4.2 cm cross-range resolution achieved with the same aperture without the metasurface-enabled beam steering. The dynamic MSA offers the superior image resolution of a beam-steering device without the hardware burden of conventional phased array antennas.
ISSN:0740-3224
1520-8540
DOI:10.1364/JOSAB.34.000300